


Lost Fairy

by sevas007



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 08:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5240852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevas007/pseuds/sevas007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when Lucy has to live with the guilt of being responsible for the loss of one of Fairy Tails greatest mages... Natsu Dragneel</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone. Theres a bunch of stories about Natsu losing Lucy but I wanted to switch it and do a story about Lucy losing Natsu, I hope you all enjoy and reviews are always appreciated

"Happy get her out of here!" Lucy looked at Natsu as Happy picked her up starting to fly away to gain some distance "Natsu be careful!" Natsu gave her his signature grin with a thumbs up unfortunately, Lucy didn't know this was the last time that she would see that grin of his

"NATSU!!" Lucy's eyes widened as she quickly sat up covered in sweat still in her small bed. She looked around realizing that it had been the same dream that haunted her ever since she took that stupid job, that stupid stupid job. 

"Lucy... Are you ok?" Lucy looked to the side to see the small blue exceed half awake beside her. She nodded quickly not wanting to admit what she had dreamed... Again "y-yeah Happy, just a bad dream is all"

Happy nodded too sleepy to ask more questions and quickly fell asleep while Lucy got out of bed walking over to her dresser opening it pulling out the white piece of scaly looking fabric but was somehow extremely soft. She picked it up moving it to her face sniffing still catching a small scent of Natsu even though it had been nearly a year, she held it close to her mumbling quietly to herself "I'm so sorry... So so sorry Natsu... Its all my fault...."

She stood there for almost half an hour trying not to break down crying and wrapped the scarf around herself walking back to bed laying down looking at the small exceed curled up into a ball laying beside her and lightly pet him whispering "I'm sorry to you too Happy... Maybe if I was stronger..."

Lucy quickly shook her head remembering all the times that Natsu told her she wasn't weak, especially at the Grand Magic Games when she had lost against Flare. Even though they were positive Raven Tail cheated she still felt bad for letting them down. She felt a small smile appear on her face remembering how Natsu had walked up to her and gave her an amazing pep talk, it was those memories that kept her going

The following morning was her usual routine, she would feel the sun shine in through the window onto her face, she would get up and look to the side to see Happy still curled up into a ball dreaming about either fish or Carla. She yawned getting out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom closing the door and looked in the mirror, ever since they took the job she never smiled like she used to. She placed her hand on her face sighing at how she looked, alot of the time she had tear stains on her cheeks and started getting signs of crows feet. She assumed that it was because of the stress from the mission and also because she had been living with Happy so things were a bit messy more than often

She looked at the scarf around her neck and slowly removed it putting it in a safe place where it wouldn't get wet then undressed getting in her shower. She still smelled from the sweat covering her after the dream and washed herself off, she closed her eyes as she washed her hair and remembered all the times that Natsu had accidentally walked in on her as he claimed. She always hated that but now she would give anything to have that happen one more time. She felt tears about to escape her eyes but then shook her head wiping her eyes "N-no... No crying.. Its been almost a year, you have to stop crying..."

Lucy told herself that but couldn't help but fall on her eyes as her hands covered her face as tears started to fall down her cheeks. She knew no one could see her crying but she still felt like she had to hide her tears for some reason. She let the tears stream down her cheeks as she sobbed in the shower, even after nearly a year she couldn't hold back the tears. She always felt bad when she cried over this... She always remembered how Natsu hated to see her cry and would do anything to make her happy. She cried for a while until she got up, turned off the water and got out of the shower drying herself off.

She looked in the mirror happy to see that the shower had kept any tear stains from showing on her cheeks. She knew the entire guild was worried about her after the mission, even Laxus started to show some sympathy towards her, what had happened had affected the entire guild but everyone knew she was the one most affected by it 

Once she had dried herself off she went back into her room but didn't find Happy anywhere. She figured he went to the guild and pulled out her outfit for the day and got dressed. She grabbed Natsu's scarf from the bathroom and looked at it for a bit before wrapping it around her neck, she knew Natsu would be ok with her wearing his scarf even though it was her fault that he couldn't wear it anymore. She knew Natsu would be angry at her with how much she blamed herself for what happened but she couldn't help it... It was her fault that Natsu was gone now. 

She grabbed her spirit keys and whip and walked outside, she was actually happy that she had decided to wear Natsu's scarf because it had recently started snowing in Magnolia. She pulled the scarf up covering her mouth and cheeks from the cold remebering how Natsu had done a similar thing when him and her were hired to steal "daybreak". She smiled remembering how it was their first job together but the smile quickly faded away as she realized she would be able to have those adventures with him anymore

She kept walking looking down at her feet in the snow until she looked up to see the guild. She sighed not actually feeling up for a job, after the mission with Natsu she hadn't gone on a job for a while until her rent came due. Her landlady was kind enough to give her some time due to what had happened but even she has her limits, eventually she went to the guild with Happy and started looking at the request board but as she looked at the jobs she took one and looked back "Hey Natsu lets..." 

Her eyes widened as she realized what she had just said, she noticed the entire guild looking at her as she stood there and quickly put the job back heading to the guild doors feeling tears starting to come out and kept her head down trying to keep anyone from seeing them. However,as she was walking she felt someone grab her arm and looked back to see Erza looking at her "Lucy... Its ok to cry..."

That was it, that was what broke her. In the middle of the guild she started sobbing loudly holding onto Erza as she felt the tears fall down her cheeks onto her shiny armor. She cried for almost an hour before she was clean out of tears.

Ever since that day she barely even walked near the request board in fear that she might have another breakdown. She had taken a few jobs with Erza, Gray, Happy and Juvia, the new team Erza even though they all knew it was team Natsu. They all just hated saying that now especially her, most of the guild had gotten over it a few months ago but were still sad. She realized she had been standing there for a while now and opened the doors walking inside to see some members of the guild in an all out brawl, even though Natsu wasnt around it was still Fairy Tail. 

She maneuvered around the flying chairs and stools to the bar where she saw Mira looking at her "Morning Lucy, how are you feeling?". This was a question that Lucy got a lot lately, she knew everyone was worried about her considering how much her personality had changed over the course of a year but was still happy to see that she had friends that cared about her "Im fine Mira thank you for asking"

Lucy sighed looking at the guild fight it out in an all out brawl, she was glad to see everyone was happy but she missed watching Natsu fight it out with them. She never told anyone not even Levy but she always secretly rooted for him to win the brawl even though the second Erza got involved he was sure to lose. She looked down at the bar counter tucking her head back into the scarf feeling its warmth

She looked at one of the corner booths to see Gray and Juvia talking with his arm wrapped around her, shortly after the mission Juvia started getting worried about the possibility of the same happening to Gray so she confessed to him in front of everyone and said that she wanted an answer

Gray was a bit reluctant to start dating the water mage but after a couple dates he really enjoyed spending time with her, some of the girls at Fairy Hills even said they saw her sneaking back in really early one day. Lucy sighed looking down at the bar, she couldn't lie. She had often considered being in a relationship with Natsu... I mean nearly everyone said they would be a great couple. She was actually going to say yes to him that night when she thought he was gonna confess, but he just wanted to borrow Virgo to try and dig in the park

She was so embarrased but relieved at the same time, she was about to take a sip of her drink until her head shot straight up at the sound of the door to the guild getting blown off its hinges. She quickly got her keys ready prepared to fight until she sighed

It was just Gildarts coming back from one of his long missions, she knew he could be just as destructive as Natsu was or maybe even more

"Hey everyone im back!" Gildarts yelled as he stepped into the guild looking at everyone in mid brawl. He laughed looking at them as Makarove walked up to him "Welcome back Gildarts, I assume your mission went well"

Gildarts nodded looking to his backside then above him "Hey where's Natsu? He usually tries to fight me by now" Makarov groaned a bit and look at him "Gildarts...."

"What? He waiting for a sneak attack or soemthing? Hey Natsu!! Come on out!" everyone quickly tried to get him to stay quiet as Makarov looked up at him "Gildarts please keep your voice down"

While they tried to get Gildarts to shut up across the guild at the bar Mira was looking at Lucy with her head down obviously trying to keep anyone from seeing her tears. Ever since the mission nobody said Natsu's name worried that Lucy might have another breakdown, she looked at her not knowing what to do "Lucy?..."

She saw Lucy start to shake slightly with small sobs coming from her then saw Gildarts walk up to her "hey you and Natsu are really close you know where he is?"

He got no response from the stellar mage and tried shaking her "Hey you alright? I asked where Natsu i..."

He was interrupted by a hand slapping his across the face leaving a red hand mark on his cheek and looked at Lucy with tears streaming down her face as she glared at him "Will you shut up!!"

He watched as she got up out of her seat running past everyone crying then noticed everyone glaring at him "what? All I wanna know is where Natsu is"

Makarov walked up to him with his head down "Gildarts... Natsu passed away about a year ago"

Gildarts eyes widened as he heard the news and looked around at everyone with their heads down then looked at his short master "C-come on... Your kidding right?"

Makarov kept looking down shaking his head as Gildarts fell back onto the bar covering his eyes with his hand "Natsu... What happened to beating me? What happened to becoming an S-class wizard?" 

Everyone watched as they saw tears start to fall down his cheeks. Gildarts... The strongest mage in Fairy Tail was crying. They knew there was nothing wrong with that, Natsu was like a son to Gildarts and a brother to the rest of them, they watched as he managed to wipe off the tears and looked at Makarov 

"How? How did it happen?" Makarov sighed sitting up on the counter looking at him. 

"It happened about a year ago..."


	2. Natsu's House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy is feeling sad so she goes to one of the only places that makes her happy nowadays

It was a snowy day in magnolia while Fairy Tail's celestial mage was walking through town wiping away some tears. After Gildarts had shown up and asked where Natsu was Lucy could barely hold back her tears, just hearing his name caused her to tear up. Over the past year she was sure that she had cried more than she had in her entire life and why not? Natsu was her best friend, he was the one who brought her to the guild, the one that saved her that day... Maybe, just maybe if she was stronger she could have done something to help him, maybe if she had been stronger... He would still be alive. Maybe she wouldn't be having that same awful dream week after week, she's tried so hard to forget that day but how can she when in her dreams she sees Natsu telling Happy to get her out of there showing off his signiture grin. Without even realizing it she had tears streaming down her face. She quickly wiped them away tucking her face into Natsu's scarf, Lucy had considered getting rid of all of Natsu's stuff as closure but she knew she would just regret it the next day

She kept walking till she arrived at the park in the middle of town and sat down right by the tree, she immediatly felt the cold as she sat down but quickly got used to it. There weren't many people in the park today besides little kids having snow ball fight or couples enjoying the snow but one couple caught her eyes

There was a tall man, maybe in his late twenties with dark black hair and besides him a woman not too much shorter with brown hair that reach down to her shoulders. But in the middle of them, there was a little girl maybe six or five years old, she had her mom's wavy hair but with her dads hair color. They were all walking holding hands, the parents swinging the girl a bit and this brought a smile on Lucy's face. 

She remembered the day Alzack and Bisca asked Natsu to watch Asuka for them while they were out on a job, they had spent most of the morning at the guild playing around. Natsu and Asuka had a target competition surprisingly Natsu had lost to Asuka and had to obey all her commands for the day. Natsu had dragged Lucy along with them when they went to this very park and Natsu was forced to obey her, Lucy loved seeing how good Natsu was with her. Asuka had convinced them to take her on jobs to buy a lacrima for her parents that they had sold a while back. Lucy didn't know why but she knew it had to be a good reason, unfortunately when they did buy it some bandits stole it from them. She was heartbroken to see little Asuka crying when her toy gun couldn't do anything against the bandits, luckily Natsu was able to shoot them down and convinced Asuka that it was her who shot them down.

It warmed Lucy's heart to see how good he was with her, she knew that he was... Would have been a great father. He was great with Asuka and Romeo, Lucy wouldn't admit it to anyone but she had really enjoyed that day alot. It reminded her of how her family used to be before her mother passed away, it made her feel like her and Natsu had their own child and they were just a family playing in the park

She always wanted to have a big family, she was so lonely as an only child and always wanted someone to play with her. After her mother passed her father rarely paid any attention to her and she didn't have anyone except for her servants but they were just paid to keep her happy. Thats why she was so happy when she joined Fairy Tail, everyone treated eachother as family. Even after Natsu passed she still had everyone to help her but... None of them could do what Natsu could. She didn't know why but somehow he always made her happy, she missed those days when Natsu would do something stupid making her laugh

She smiled but her smile quickly faded as she started crying again remembering all those good times she had with him and knew that she wouldn't be able to have days like those anymore. She knew she had to go there... She got up and started walking with her head down, her bangs covering her eyes

Meanwhile back at the guild Gildarts was still waiting for Makarov to tell him about what had happened, he still couldn't believe it himself. Deep down he was hoping that this was one of Natsu's plans to beat him and that he would jump out any second now.

Makarov sat on the bar with his eyes closed then slowly opened them to see all his children surrounded around him. They all knew what had happened but they all felt like they had to be strong, for Gildarts. Makarov sighed looking at the mage "Well... It happened about a year ago when Natsu and Lucy had decided to go out on a job. Unfortunately, even Lucy doesn't know all the details"

"What do you mean she doesn't know? You just said that she was with him" Gildarts asked with a hint of anger in his voice

"Gildarts.... She doesn't like to talk about what happened, she holds herself responsible for what happened to him. Her and Natsu took a job to investigate some monster hiding in a cave by a town but from what Lucy said it got too dangerous and Natsu had Happy get her out of there. When her and Happy returned the cave had collapsed and there was no sign of Natsu except for his scarf. We had searched for months but never found any sign of him except for some blood in the cave, torn fabric and the monsters body. It was clear Natsu had put up a fight against it but he didn't kill it it was the cave collapsing that did"

Gildarts groaned getting up "ok, where's the cave? Im gonna go check it out" Makarov sighed placing his hand on his shoulder "Gildarts.... We both know you wont find anything"

Gildart groaned obviously holding back tears and swallowed a lump in his throat, sitting down at the bar "fine... Guess we'll just have to... Move on"

Everyone saw tears fall from his eyes onto the bar counter with Gildarts shaking slightly, all of them moved back deciding that it was best to give him some time to process this. Makarov sighed as he saw Mira hand Gildarts a bottle of whiskey with a small glass cup as he poured himself a drink 

"You know we already have one person drinking all of the booze we dont need two" Gildarts nodded completely downing the whiskey not caring at the moment "yeah yeah..."

Makaroved sighed pouring himself some "this is hard on all of us Gildarts, but you are Fairy Tails strongest mage. The second you start showing weakness the rest shall follow you and fall"

Gildarts nodded as kept drinking remembering all the times Natsu had challenged him to a fight. He laughed a little at all the fun times he had with him "you know Makarov.. I should have been around more often. Natsu looked up to me, I should have trained him some more and even accepted more of his challenges"

Makarov looked at Gildarts who was spinning the whiskey in his glass a bit knowing that he was holding back tears. "You did a great job with Natsu Gildarts, there's nothing you could have done to change what happened" 

Gildarts nodded continuing to drink with Makarov while they started to talk about stories they had about Natsu. Both of them were heavy drinkers so by the time that the alcohol had actually started affecting them there were nearly ten empty bottles on the counter. Makarov had gotten up and made it half way up the stairs to his office before falling over, Mira actually had to pick him up carrying him to his office. Gildarts got up looking around and walked over to Cana sitting in a booth, he sat down next to her putting his arm around her "my baby girl"

Cana tried moving away out of his grasp but that just caused him to pull her closer "cana... I want you to know that I love you" 

Cana blushed a bit at what he had just said. Ever since she had told him about her being his daughter back on Tenrou Island he had been more fatherly towards her whenever he was around, even though she did like having her father know about her it was still embarrassing"ok Gildarts.."

Gildarts laughed a bit pulling her closer "call me papa... You know you wanna" 

Cana groaned a bit at his drunk behavior and looked around to make sure no one was looking and decided to just make him happy "ok papa... Now let go"

Gildarts laughed a little smiling at Cana and pulled her closer "papa wants you to know he loves you alot..."

Cana blushed more and tried to pull away "yeah yeah... I love you too" she suddenly found herself with her face against his chest and looked up to see him hugging her tightly 

"I want you to be careful out there... Promise papa you'll be careful out there" Cana sighed knowing this was because of Natsu, even she had missed seeing that pink haired idiot cause an all out brawl throughout the guild "yeah I'll be carefull..."

They had talked for a bit being a father and daughter even having Gildarts walk Cana home saying that it was dangerous to walk home alone so late

Meanwhile on the other side of town Lucy was walking near the edge of town looking at the snow continue to fall "Im almost there..."

Lucy hadn't gone here alot before Natsu's passing but now... She felt like if she didn't she wouldn't be able to survive anymore, like she would just give up on being a wizard. But deep down she knew that everyone in the guild would never let her quit, she knew Natsu of all people would have be against it

But that was just it, he would have been. She hated thinking about him and yet loved it at the same time, those memories brought a smile on her face but as soon as she remembered what happened she felt tears coming 

She wiped away some tears on her cheeks as a gust of wind hit her causing her face to go cold. She shivered and wrapped Natsu's scarf around her tight, she looked ahead and saw it up ahead

She walked along a path till she saw a sign completely covered in snow, she walked up to it crouching down and brushed off most of the snow. It was the little sign that said 'Natsu and Happy'

She looked ahead to see that little house Natsu had built for him and Happy, she rarely came here before the job but now she came here almost every week. She got up and walked up to it opening the door then walked in closing the door behind her so the snow wouldnt get in

Unlike what you would expect from Natsu's house the floor wasnt covered in mess and everything was neatly put away. Lucy had cleaned up the place after she stayed here one night and stubbed her toe in the morning

*flashback*  
It had been about three months after the job Lucy and Natsu took. The newly formed team Erza was on a train heading back from that cave where Natsu fought the monster. Gray and Juvia were sitting next to each other while Erza and Lucy sat across from them with Happy on Lucy's lap. 

Lucy was looking out the window petting Happy's head, she was glad they were leaving that place. It was hard for her to think about it or even go back there "Lucy are you alright?"

Lucy was brought back to reality and saw Erza looking at her with a worried expression, she nodded putting on a fake smile "y-yeah Erza... Just thinking thats all."

Erza nodded but knew that Lucy was hurting badly right now. They had came back to investigate some more and see if any of the towns people had spotted Natsu around. Many of the guild members had speculated that maybe Natsu was just badly injured and managed to get out of there before the cave collapsed

They all felt the train stop and looked outside to see Magnolia Station. They all got off with each of them offering to go with Lucy for some company but she turned them all down. Lucy was walking with Happy to her house till she felt him tug on her boots "Hey Lucy can we go to my house and pick up something"

She smiled and nodded knowing that there was a good chance Happy missed something when they were packing up all his stuff so he could move in with her. They walked for a bit till they arrived at their house and Lucy pushed open the door walking in with Happy. She sighed looking around, it was still a complete mess. She walked over to the board Natsu had put up with momentos and flyers from almost all his jobs

She smiled at one with a small note saying 'first job with Lucy' she placed her forehead against it smiling "hey Lucy... Could we sleep here tonight?"

Lucy looked back at him and thought about it a bit before nodding "yeah of course Happy. But wheres Na... Um. Is there a bed around here?"

It hurt Lucy just to speak his name but she had to get it out somehow. She looked at Happy as he shook his head "Me and... Always slept in a hammock"

Erza told Happy to be nice to Lucy and not to mention Natsu around her, he knew better than to disobey Erza's orders. He sprouted his wings and flew over to the hammock him and Natsu used to sleep in showing Lucy where it is. 

Lucy walked over taking off her boots and set down her whip and keys on the table. She looked at the hammock being at level with her neck and brought a chair by to help her get in. She got in and felt the hammock lower a bit as Happy curled up into a ball by her side "hey Lucy?"

Lucy looked at Happy as she adjusted the pillow a bit and pulled the blankets up "yes Happy?"

"Natsu's not really gone is he?" Lucy watched as Happy looked up at her with pleading eyes almost as if she got to decided whether or not he was dead. She felt the tears starting to come up remembering that day again 

"Happy..." he looked up at her as she hugged him tight crying into his fur "im so sorry... So so sorry..."

Happy started crying as well hugging her back. He was obviously sad about this as well, he had lost his best friend. He believed Natsu was alive and was slowly making his way back to them but after three months... He just didn't know anymore

Lucy and Happy cried in Natsu's hammock until Happy fell asleep with Lucy lightly petting him whispering "how do you not hate me? Happy im so sorry... You should have gotten Natsu out of that cave instead of me..."

She cried into the exceed's fur a bit more before fell asleep mumbling to herself "Natsu... Please come back to us..."

In the morning Lucy wake up to light beaming on her face from the window, she yawned and looked to the side to see Happy still cuddle up to her side. She tried sitting up but groaned a bit feeling her back, she immediately realized why Natsu enjoyed her bed so much. The hammock really did a number on her back. She managed to climb out of the hammock and started walking over to the table to grab her keys and whips but bumped her toe into something causing her to jump grabbing her foot "Ow! Ow! Ow! Dammit Natsu!"

Her eyes widened as she looked at the hammock to see Happy still asleep and grabbed her keys and whip tip toeing outside where she sat against the wall looking up at the sky "Natsu.... I miss you... Please, just come back to us"

She cried into her hands wishing that this was all just a bad dream and that she would wake up any second now to see Natsu asleep in her bed besides her

*end of flashback*

Lucy was standing in the middle of Natsu's house, she didn't return for a while after that night but later she realized she didn't have that awful dream here. So whenever she was really fed up with that dream she came here.

She shivered a bit at how cold the house was and grabbed a fiece of firewood putting it in the fireplace then found some matches lighting it. She honestly had no idea why Natsu had put in a fireplace, on those cold nights whenever he snuck into her bed she always loved it. He was like her own personal heater but now...

She sighed warming herself up near the fireplace "I miss you Natsu... I miss having you call me weirdo.. I miss seeing that smirk of yours... I miss cuddling with you..."

Even though there was no one around Lucy still blushed admitting that. But any time she saw a roaring fire in front of her she usually talked to it, it was sort of a way to cope with everything

She walked over to the hammock and patted some dust off of the blankets before taking off her boots, keys, and whip jumping into it. She had lowered it after a bit so she wouldn't always have to grab a chair

She layed her head on the pillow looking at the fire and touched her guild mark. Somehow when she touched it it gave her hope that Natsu had somehow managed to get out of that cave, if there's one thing Natsu was known for it was his willpower. No matter who he was fighting he never gave up, it was one of the things Lucy admired about the dragon slayer

She yawned as she pulled the blankets higher up her body slowly drifting off to sleep. She was glad to know she wouldn't be having that awful dream until she heard a familiar voice "hey Luce"

Hey eyes flew open as she looked to the side to see someone standing there. Her lips trembled as she put her hands over he mouth "N-Natsu...."


	3. Natsu's return?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is this the return of Natsu Dragneel?

Magnolia was covered with light clouds as snow fell from the sky but on the outskirts of the city there was a small cabin like house. Smoke was coming out of the chimney and inside there was a fire burning the wood in the fireplace. Across the room there was a hammock going from one end of the room to the other, inside the hammock there was a young blonde sitting up covering her mouth with her hands. Her eyes were widened with tears falling down her cheeks. She was in complete disbelief as she looked at the other person in the room. Lucy never thought she would ever see him again but there he stood, with that cocky grin on his face looking at her

"Hey Luce, what are you doing in my house in sure your place is warmer" Lucy stared at him shaking a bit

Natsu leaned in closer looking at her "Hey Lucy you alright? Can you hear me?"

Lucy just stared at him shaking slightly still in complete disbelief. She slowly reached out her hand to touch his face but reached out too far causing the hammock to turn over

Lucy gasped and closed her eyes ready to feel pain from falling out of the hammock but felt someone catch her. She slowly opened her eyes to see Natsu's strong arms holding her up "hey Lucy you gotta be more careful, you could get hurt"

Lucy shook her head looking up at him and started crying into his chest "Natsu... H-how? W-we couldn't find any..."

Lucy was cut off as Natsu placed his fingers on her lips "hey come on Luce, do you really think I could be taken out so easily?"

Lucy couldn't help but smile at him and nodded. "But Natsu I still have so many questio..."

Lucy was cut off yet again by Natsu's fingers on her lips. She swatted his hand away getting a bit irritated "Natsu! Stop that!"

Natsu laughed a bit and Lucy couldn't help but smile at seeing him. But the smile quickly faded as she stood up and looked him dead in the eye "Natsu.... Where have you been?"

Natsu grabbed Lucy's hands smiling at her "Luce.. I've always been with you you weirdo. I've been right here" she watched as he moved her hand to her chest smirking a bit "I've been in your heart weirdo"

Lucy's eyes widened and her face turned bright red as she lookes up at Natsu "w-what?"

She saw him laugh hard grabbing his stomach "oh man the look on your face!"

Lucy crosed her arms and pouted as she turned around with her back to him "jerk..." she walked to the hammock but sighed and turned around to see him still standing there "Natsu..."

She saw him smile at her walking closer "what is it?"

She looked at the hammock blushing harder and talked quietly "Natsu... Would you mind.." she gulped and looked at him "would you mind.. Sleeping with me"

She saw him smile as he picked her up "of course not you weirdo, besides weve slept together before plenty of times"

Lucy covered her face and even though she hated to admit it it was true. He always used to sneak into her bedroom when she was asleep and got in bed with her "yeah..."

She looked at him as he gently put her in the hammock kicking off his sandles and got in with her. Lucy didn't know where he had been for the past year and she was determined to get answers just... Not right now. She looked over her shoulder to see him laying there with her and turned around wrapping her arm around him

She blushed a bit as she noticed him look down at her "what are you doing luce?"

She burried her face into his chest blushing harder "I just... Wanna.. Make sure you dont leave"

She didn't hear anything so she looked up at him and saw a smirk on his face as he wrapped his arm around her kissing her forehead "you weirdo, im not gonna leave you"

She smiled up at him with a single tear rolling down her cheek and hugged him tight getting comfortable "Natsu... Thank you for coming back"

She yawned slowly as she felt him rubbing her back with his warm hand. She heard him say a word that she had missed hearing come from his voice "weirdo..."

She felt herself drifting off to sleep but before she did she hugged him tighter almost just to assure herself that he was gonna stay "Natsu... Dont leave me again.."

She closed her eyes quickly falling asleep knowing that somehow everything was gonna be alright. She was gonna take Natsu to the guild tomorrow and everyone would be extremely happy but also a bit angry at how much he made them sad. Natsu, Happy and her were gonna go on a job and have tons of fun. Everything... Was gonna go back to normal

In the morning she felt a bright light shinning on her face and groaned "Natsu... Window please"

She didn't hear anything and groaned louder "Natsu.. Please..."

After she didn't hear anything again she groaned loudly and sat up "Natsu come o..." she looked around and saw no one there with her

She looked around and she shook her head "H-he probably left.. Thats it! He left! He's probably at the guild in a fight..."

She smiled trying to keep it together but started crying just looking down at her lap. She could feel the tears on her cheeks and didn't even feel like trying to wipe them away "I told him.... I told him not to leave me... Why did he..."

She cried loudly almost screaming. She missed him, she missed her dragon slayer, she wanted him back so much "NATSU!!!"

She yelled at the top of her lungs as she cried hoping that somehow maybe he would run in amd hug her tightly to get her to stop crying. She cried for almost an hour till she laid back down hugging his scarf tightly "Natsu... Why did you leave me again..."

Lucy knew it was probably just a really realistic dream but she still wished that it was real. She wiped her cheeks and closed her eyes tightly feeling one last tear fall down her cheek as she fell asleep again

When Lucy was starting to wake up later she felt herself in someones strong arms. She struggled to open her eyes a bit but as she did she saw someone holding her, carrying her. Her vision was a bit blurry from her barely waking up but she saw him, she saw Natsu. She quickly hugged him tightly causing them to fall on the ground "You came back! I knew you would!"

"Ahh! Love rival is trying to steal Gray-sama from Juvia!" Lucy's eyes widened and she sat up looking down at Gray then looked around to see Juvia standing there glaring at her with Happy flying beside her

She looked down at Gray and blushed quickly moving off of him "Gray im so sorry! I thought you were Na... Never mind" she looked down at the snow around them feeling sad and embarrased

Gray slowly stood up knowing what she was about to say and decided not to bring it up "Master was worried about you so he sent us to go look for you. Happy told us that there was a good chance you were at his house so we decided to check it out. You were out pretty good so I had Juvia get you dressed and started heading to your house"

Lucy nodded and stood up noticing she had her jacket on and the scarf wrapped around her a bit tight "T-thanks.. Im sorry for worrying you guys..."

Gray nodded putting his arm around Juvia whispering something into her ear and she smiled looking at Lucy "Juvia is sorry for thinking Love ri... Lucy was trying to steal Gray-sama"

Lucy smiled at the water woman and shook her head "Its alright Juvia. I know Gray means alot to you, im glad you two got together"

Lucy started walking away from them but Happy followed her as he had her whip and celestial spirits with him "Lucy?"

Lucy smiled at th blue exceed amd pulled him close to her hugging him tightly "Im fine Happy"

Happy looked up at her and nodded knowing that it was a bit hard for her ever since the job. It was hard on him too but he knew that Natsu wouldn't want them crying and being sad. He would want them to be happy and to be going on more adventures

Lucy looked down at Happy knowing that he was thinking deep about something and kept walking towards her house. She still couldn't believe it, was that really a dream? It just felt so... Real, the way he smiled at her, the way he held her.. She just wanted it to be real so badly

They kept walking while off in the distance Gray and Juvia were still watching them "Juvia hopes Lucy will be alright, Juvia knows she misses Natsu alot"

Gray nodded sighing a bit "I hope she'll be alright too Juvia" Juvia noticed Gray was being a bit quiet and knew this had affected him as well. Even though Gray and Natsu always fought they shared a close bond with each other. And when Natsu died, it was like a part of Gray died as well

Juvia hugged his arm smiling at him hoping to cheer him up "Does Gray-sama wanna go get something to eat?"

Gray nodded and smiled down at her as they started to walk "Juvia.."

Juvia looked up at him "yes Gray-sa..." Juvia was cut off as she felt Gray kiss her passionately and yet so gently at the same time. Juvia wasn't sure if she would ever get used to being kissed by the man she loved. Gray slowly pulled away with a smirk on his face seeing her blush "Ready to go?"

She smiled and nodded as grabbed his arm starting to walk with him. She looked in the distance to see Lucy walking with her head down, Juvia did think that she might try to steal Gray from her but she was still worried about her. She missed Natsu deeply

Juvia pulled on Gray's arm looking up at him "can we invite Lucy to eat with us? Juvia is worried about her"

Gray looked in the distance barely able to see her anymore and nodded walking with Juvia towards Lucy. They walked over to Lucy and Gray tapped her shoulder "Hey Lucy you wanna come eat with us?"

Lucy looked down at Happy who's stomach growled and nodded with a small smile "Thank you, yeah we'll join you"

They all started walking to a dinner together not knowing what who was on the outskirts of town. Out on the outskirts, stood a hooded figure who needed to get there quickly. He needed to get to Fairy Tail


	4. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting is held within magnolia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I wanna say happy new years to all of you who read this story and hope you have a great year.

The snow had let up over Magnolia but it was still gently falling over the city, inside the guild of Fairy Tail everyone was enjoying themselves. Even though it was still early most of the older members were already there. Makarov Drayer was inside his office looking over billing receipts from mission damage, he sighed rubbing rubbing his eyes as he looked through them. Even through all the years being the guild's master he never got used to the damage expenses the guild had to pay for all the damage the members did. He leaned back in his chair and sighed

"So it seems that you have finally returned" Makarov said without even turning around to see the hooded figure behind him standing there

"Gi hehe, even an old man can notice me when im hiding?" Makarov looked back to see Gajeel pull back the hood revealing it was him

"I assume the mission went well?" Makarov asked as Gajeel walked over to the front of his desk

"Yeah it went good, didn't get too much information though" Makarov nodded looking at him "its alright, did you at least gain a name or a location?" Gajeel nodded looking at him

"Yeah a name, but not too much on a location. They're all pretty secret and most of them dont even show their faces" Makarov nodded looking through some papers

"So tell me about what you found out" Gajeel nodded leaning against the wall

"Well it turns out that one of their members is heading into town, I actually had to hurry and get back here to warn you. He might know what you wanna know" Makarov sighed nodding

"Its not even me who wants to learn about these people, the Magic Council are the ones that want to know. And sense they know about your skills infiltrating dark guilds they came to me" Gajeel nodded chewing on some nails that he pulled out of his pocket

"I dont know when the guys gonna get here but I do know that he's one of the top mages in the guild, he also seems to have a temper. He almost killed one of the members for just giving him a dirty look" Makarov nodded looking at him

"Do you think you'll be able to handle him? I want to keep this secret from everyone else but if you need help I could get Erza to help you" he looked up at the dragon slayer and noticed a grin on his face

"Gi hehe, trust me. I'll get the information out of him one way or another" Gajeel started heading for the door but looked back at the master

"I've been meaning to ask you. How's bunny girl doing? She still crying over salamander?" Gajeel had left a couple weeks ago but even back then Lucy was still crying, even though it had been months

"Sadly yes, she even ran out of here yesterday when Gildarts mentioned his name" Gajeel nodded sighing, he didn't cry over Natsu when he died but he did secretly miss him. He was one of the best members to fight against but he was also one of the one's he still felt guilty about. When he was still with Phantom he messed him up pretty bad and was about to kill him. He wasn't sure if Natsu completely forgave him but he hoped he did, now that he couldn't do anything to gain his forgiveness

"Im gonna get going now, gotta keep an eye out for when the guild member shows up" Makarov watched as Gajeel walked out the door and opened a drawer pulling out a picture of all the guild members as young kids "You reckless brat..."

Out in the open streets of Magnolia Lucy was holding Happy as they walked with Gray and Juvia towards a diner. Lucy was trying to stay behind them sense she had a feeling Juvia was still angry at her for leaping onto Gray earlier that day "Hey Lucy are you ok?"

Lucy looked down at Happy in her arms and nodded smiling "yeah Happy... Just... Daydreaming"

Happy nodded looking at Gray and Juvia in front of them talking. Juvia was hanging onto his arm talking about how much she loved him glaring back at Lucy from time to time. When they started dating Juvia started telling everyone about how much Gray loved her and how they would have a big happy family but stayed away from Lucy sense she was still grieving over Natsu

They shortly arrived at the diner and sat in a booth, Juvia next to Gray and Happy next to Lucy. Gray noticed Lucy staring off out the window and tapped her "hey Lucy, you sure your alright? If you want we can walk you home"

Lucy smiled and shook her head "yeah im fine... And im also pretty hungry"

Gray mentally sighed and nodded, her smile was never the same after Natsu. He could even tell that this was a fake smile to assure them she was fine but it just worried him more "ok so lets order"

They all nodded but heard a cup break, they all looked to the corner of the diner where a waitress was shaking a bit obviously scared as a tall man with short black hair stood in front of her with a piece of a broken cup in his hands. He was wearing a black long sleeved shirt with tight pants and combat boots. He was glaring at the waitress moving closer, he spoke in a rough voice that made her shake in fear "this coffee tastes terrible... Im pretty sure I asked for a good coffee. Is that too much to ask for?"

The waitress shook her head trying to back off but the tall man grabbed her wrist "dont mess up again or it'll be your last mistake"

He let her go and she walked away rubbing her wrists but Juvia saw Gray get up walking over to the man who sat back down "hey! If you dont like the coffee dont drink it, dont gotta be such an asshole about it"

The man looked at Gray and sighed "you know... I really dont like being bothered.." he moved quickly and got up kicking Gray in the chest sending him through the window of the diner

Juvia,Lucy, and Happy quickly got up and ran outside to Gray's side "Gray-sama are you alright!?" 

Gray nodded groaning as he got up and took off his shirt glaring at the man as he jumped through the window now wearing a quiver full of arrows and a bow in hand. He looked at all four of them but he looked at Lucy "oh its you, I never thought I would see you again"

All them looked at Lucy with a puzzled look "Lucy you know this guy?"

Lucy looked at them and quickly shook her head "no! I've never seen him before in my life!"

The man sighed and pulled an arrow out of the quiver and aimed it with the bow "I guess your just an idiot. Either way, im gonna kill all of you now"

Juvia walked in front of everyone glaring at the man without even one hint of fear on her face "Juvia will make you pay for hurting her beloved"

The man shot the arrow at Juvia and watched as his arrow went straight through her arm into the building across the street "hmm... So you have a body of water, that really pisses me off. You just made me waste an arrow"

Juvia galred at him as her arm turned back to normal "Juvia has had enough of that bow already. Water slicer!"

Juvia sent a wave of water towards him but watched as held the bow up against the water and saw the attack not affect him or the bow at all "hmm.. Gotta admit thats a good attack. Might actually destroy any normal bow"

They all looked at him really surprised, what did he mean by normal bow. He drew back another arrow aiming it at Juvia and shot it again but just like last time it went through her. Except Juvia screamed as she felt literal electricity coarse through her body

Lucy, Happy and Gray quickly ran to her side as she fell to her knees "Juvia are you alright!?"

Juvia nodded slowly grabbing onto Gray's arm "y-yes.. But.. That wasn't a regular arrow."

They all looked at the man as he grinned pulling back another arrow "oh man I really enjoyed hearing you scream. Lets see if we can get a louder scream though"

He shot the arrow but before it could collide a shield of ice went up and they saw sparks of electricity as it hit the shield. Gray helped up Juvia glaring at the man "he must use some of kind of electricity magic. Everyone be careful"

They all nodded looking at him as he pulled back three arrows with a grin and his face and shot them. But Gray notice something this time, he quickly got up still holding Juvia and tackled Lucy to the ground 

"Gray!?" Lucy groaned sense he had tackled her pretty hard. Gray pointed back to the shield and they saw it melted with the arrows where they were standing.

"I saw the arrows light on fire in mid air, this guy obviously has some more tricks up his sleeve. Everyone be on your guard" they all nodded as Happy picked up Lucy to gain an ariel advantage

The man looked up at them pulling back more arrows "the cat's here too? And he can fly? Geez I thought it was weird enough when he was talking"

He shot the arrows but Happy managed to move out the way dodging them, Lucy looked up at Happy with a confused look "Happy do you know who this guy is?"

Happy shook his head looking down to see Gray fighting with the man. "Happy get me closer"

Happy nodded flying closer as Lucy got her whip out watching carefully as Gray kept fighting with him alongside Juvia. They kept combining their magic but somehow he kept shooting electrical and fire arrows, he also used the bow as an extension to his arm in hand to hand combat. She watched carefully till he raised the bow hit Juvia but managed to get her whip wrapped around it pulling on it "oh good job, I actually didn't see you but unfortunately.."

He managed to pull them down but luckily Gray made a slide giving them a safe way down. They all regrouped and looked at the man walking closer "you know your magic isn't gonna work on my bow.. But good try. This is actually built out of the same stuff that that eclipse gate was built out of. It wasn't easy to make but I know someone who is good with metals"

They all looked at him and Lucy got up "how do you know me and Happy? We dont remember ever meeting you"

The man sighed looking at them "fine.. Sense im gonna kill you might as well. It was about a year ago, it was in some small town. I just let this DarkWolf loose and you guys were the ones who took the request to get rid of it. Im actually amazed your still alive. So where's pinky?"

Gray and Juvia both looked down at Lucy who was on her knees looking down, she was shaking a bit with her bangs covering her face "so.... Your the one who let that thing loose"

The man laughed and nodded "yeah, I wanted to see that town go down so I let that thing loose. Stupid thing ran into that cave though..."

He was stopped though as he saw a flash of light come up to him punching the bow with tons of force sending him back "what the..."

He looked in front of him where Lucy stood in her Leo stardress with her fist glowing. Gray and Juvia were both amazed at how fast she had moved, but what amazed them the most were her eyes. Over the past year her eyes were full of sadness but now... They were full of anger

"Im gonna make you pay... Im gonna make you pay for taking away Natsu!!" Lucy growled at him with both her fists now glowing

"You like hearing people scream... Im gonna make you scream..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading and please leave a comment, I always appreciate those


	5. Angry Lucy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy gets angry and takes on the archer

It had all started out as any casual day would, Gray and Juvia were heading out for breakfast and decided to bring Lucy with them. Unfortunately when they arrived at the diner they met a rather aggresive person, Gray tried to talk with him but just ended up getting kicked out the dinner into a fight. But during the fight they all learned some shocking information, this man wad responsible for letting the beast loose that took away their dear friend Natsu. But what surprised them the most was how Lucy handled the information, over the past year she always cried at any mention of Natsu's name feeling guilty for what happened. But instead of falling to her knees crying she became furious and attacked the man. Lucy had transformed into her Leo stardress and glared at the man in front of her with her fist shining

She charged at him with extreme speed throwing a punch but the archer doged it jumping back "you actually put a dent into my bow, that gets me really mad!"

He drew back three arrows shooting them all at the same time towards Lucy with all of them catching on fire in mid air, Lucy watched the arrows carefully and managed to jump into the air right before they hit her and lunged at the man with one of her feet shining bright "Regulus lucy kick!"

The archer lifted his bow above his head blocking the attack but the force of the kick still caused the ground under him to get destroyed. He managed to push back sending Lucy back to the ground but she got right back onto her feet

"Lucy!" Lucy looked towards her right side to see Gray, Juvia, and Happy running towards her. She had honestly forgotten that they were here as well

"Lucy are you alright? You gotta be careful around this guy" Lucy nodded but looked back towards the archer as he got more arrows ready

"I need you guys to do me a favor, please leave this guy to me. I need to beat him.... For Natsu" they all looked at her all debating whether or not to let her

"Lucy this guy's dangerous, I get that you wanna get payback for Natsu but let us help" Gray felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see that Juvia was the one looking up at him

"Gray-sama... Please let her fight. Lucy needs to do this" she looked up at him with pleading eyes, she knew that if someone took away her beloved that she would want to avenge him as well

"Fine Lucy... But were staying close in case you need help, just be careful" Lucy nodded and looked at the archer 

"Tell me your name, and why you released that beast into that town?" the archer smirked drawing back another arrow. Lucy watched him carefully in case he shot them

"Well sense your actually giving me a good fight I guess I'll tell you my name but for the answer you want your gonna have to beat me. My name is June Vazial, im also known as the elemental archer."

Lucy nodded moving closer "im guessing thats because of what your arrows do, I don't know your magic but you've used arrows that light on fire and get covered in lightning. Im guessing you can cover them in elements?"

June nodded smirking "your pretty smart for a blonde, too bad that wont help you in a fight"

He shot the arrow towards Lucy and she managed to move to the side but felt a cut on her cheek, she saw the arrow fly past her and knew it didnt touch her. She couldn't try and figure it out though sense she knew this guy was strong and if she let her guard down she would get an arrow through the head

She ran towards him with bright light covering her fist ready to punch him but saw him run towards her holding out his bow swinging it at her but she punched it right back. He was definitely strong because even in her stardress it was a struggle to push him back, she looked him in the eye and growled 

"Tell me why you set that thing loose?" June smirked and moved closer letting a five inch blade pop out of the edge of the bow, Lucy managed to move out of the way but still felt her arm get cut as she moved

"Oh man I knew this little blade would come in handy! I was just hoping that it would have gone through your heart" He laughed loudly as Lucy grabbed her arm feeling the blood dripping out, she had managed to dodge his arrows with just a few cuts but this cut was the worse

"Im not going to stop... Im going to beat you, for Natsu. That's a promise and I never break a promise!" she charged at him lifting her arms ignoring the pain from the cut and threw a punch to only be blocked by his bow and saw him trying to move so the blade would cut her. But instead of moving out of the way she grabbed the blade keeping it in place as it cut into her hand, it hurt like hell but she made a promise and she inteded to keep it. She kept pushing will all her force and managed to push him ont the ground getting on top of him, she screamed as she started bending the blade feeling it dig even deeper into her hand but didn't stop till she felt it break

June kicked her off of him and quickly stood up drawing back an arrow down at her as she looked up at him "ok. Now im really mad! Im gonna put one right between your eyes!"

In the distance Gray, Juvia and Happy were still watching, Gray had been clenching his fists for a while now knowing that he could help Lucy beat him but every time he tried to move Juvia begged him not to. He was worried now as Lucy was in a bad situation and looked at Juvia "dammit Juvia why cant we help her? She needs our help!"

Juvia looked at her boyfriend and looked straight into his eyes "Juvia... Believes Lucy loved Natsu-san. Lucy continues to blame herself for his death and Gray-sama know that as well, if something ever happened to Gray-sama Juvia would want to do something to avenge you. So please.. Juvia knows Lucy can defeat him, Juvia believes in Lucy"

Gray looked at her a bit surprised by her words but sighed and nodded looking back towards Lucy "come on Lucy, you can do it"

Lucy panted looking up at June, she was hurt, she was bleeding, and she was very low on magic energy. She still wanted to know why this guy did what he did. She was still angry at him and that was one reason she was so intended on beating this guy. But she remembered all the times Natsu got beaten down and was barely able to stand, he would always get right back up no matter what. He would always fight till his last breath and thats what she planned to do. She looked at him as he was about to let go of the arrow and clenched her fist quickly lunging at him punching the bow with almost all the magic she had and punched straight through it shattering it and punched him in his face sending him to the ground. She was surprised herself that she was able to do that but she couldn't start asking questions now because she was the angriest she had ever been

She jumped on him punching him into the ground over and over with nothing but rage in her eyes "why did you do it!? Why did you take him away!? Tell me!!!"

It was obvious that Lucy had already knocked him out but she didn't stop punching. She kept giving it everything she had, she had been sad for the past year and that sadness had just turned to anger. And she really needed to burn off that anger

She kept shouting as she punched his face into the ground completely shattering the ground under him and didn't stop till she felt arms grab her trying to pull her back. She tried pulling away not knowing that it was Gray and Gajeel trying to pull her back "let me go!! Im gonna kill him!! Im gonna make him pay!!"

Gajeel groaned trying to hold her back and looked at Gray "dammit what the hell has gotten into her!?"

"This guy is responsible for what happened to Natsu, after she found out she went berserk" they both looked at Lucy as she kept trying to get away from them wanting to kill the archer

Gajeel groaned looking at her, he had never seen her like this in all the time that he had been at Fairy Tail. But he did know the look in her eyes, it was the look of someone wanting to kill. He knew there was no talking her down right now so he decided to do the only thing he could think of. He quickly moved in front of her punching her in the gut hard causing her to pass out in his arms from the pain. They all watched as her fancy dress dissapeared and she was back into her normal clothes 

"What the hell man!? What did you do that for!?" Gray grabbed Gajeel by the collar glaring at him

"There was no talking her down! Look at him! He has his face punched in, he is on the verge of death! Is that the bunny girl you know?" Gray sighed letting go and looked at June on the ground knocked out.

"I guess your right. But you didnt have to hit her so hard" Gajeel shrugged throwing Lucy over his shoulders walking over to June

"You always were pretty weak, but I had no idea you were involved with salamanders death" Gray and Juvia both looked at him confused as Happy looked at Lucy

"Gajeel you know this guy?" Gray asked as he started picking up June

"Yeah, master sent me on an infiltration job a couple months ago. This guy's part of a new dark guild called Blood Hornets, he's one of their top people but still the weakest of the higher ups. He uses a special type of enhancement magic that boosts his arrows with elemental magic. Speaking of which"

They saw Gajeel pick up the shattered bow looking at it "Good idea Gajeel im sure that we can do something good with that, the dude said it was made from parts of the eclipse portal"

"I didn't know that, and I wasn't planning on using it for anything special. I was just hungry" they all stared at him as he start chewing and eating the metal bow

"Eh I've tasted better metal, come on lets get these two to the guild. I still got questions I wanna ask June about his guild's hideout and bunny girl looks like she could get patched up"

They all nodded as they started heading towards the guild as Happy looked at Lucy whispering "your scary when your angry Lucy.."


	6. The Answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy has to give her answer to a difficult question

When she had opened her eyes she was blinded by a bright light which caused her to have to close them. Lucy covered her eyes with her right hand blocking them from the light and slowly sat up seeing that she was in the guilds infirmary, she groaned as she sat up and lifted up her shirt to see a bruise. She also noticed that she had bandages along her arms and her left hand was completely covered in bandages. She turned sitting on the bed with her feet on the wood floor and remembered everything that had happened. Her fighting that dude that apparently let that monster loose which resulted in the death of Natsu, punching him into the ground, getting held back by someone then she got knocked out by something.

She got up and tried to walk towards the door but ended up falling back onto the bed because of her weak and tired legs "I guess I used up too much magic energy.."

She was about to try and stand up again till she heard the door open and saw Wendy walk in with Carla "Lucy-san your awake!"

Wendy ran up to Lucy and hugged her almost knocking the air out of Lucy "o-oh hi Wendy, were you the one that bandaged me up?"

Wendy nodded moving back a bit so she could look at Lucy "Gajeel-san and Gray-san came in with you hurt so I tried to heal you but the cuts were a bit difficult to heal so I had to bandage them"

Lucy smiled and tried to stand up again but groaned immediately sitting back down hearing Carla's voice "you should not try to move so soon, you still need rest"

Lucy sighed laying back down and looked at Wendy "Wendy, what happened to the man they brought in with me"

The small Dragon Slayer looked down trying to avoid Lucy's gaze "the master said not to talk about him with you, Gray-san told everyone about how he was responsible for what happened"

Lucy knew that they were just trying to help her but she really wanted to know if the magic council had dealt with him, if he was in the cells downstairs, or even dead. Lucy turned to her side with her back to Wendy "I think im going to take a nap alright Wendy"

Wendy nodded picking up Carla and walked out of the room quietly closing the door, she was walking away but saw Makarov walk up to her "How is she doing?"

"Lucy-san seems to be healing well but she needs rest, but as for how she's feeling...." Wendy knew that after learning that man was responsible for what happened that it would be hard for the guild not to go in there and make him pay. Natsu was like a big brother to Wendy so it hurt her badly when he had passed away

"Hmm... We will have to check up on her in a bit to check on her condition. For now I believe its best if we give her space and keep quiet about him. Its best that she doesnt know he's here" they all walked downstairs not knowing that inside the room Lucy was listening in 

What they had just said answered her question, that man was inside the guild right now. If she had to guest she would say he was down in the cells. She looked at the door and tried to stand up but groaned at the pain on her stomach and layed back "why is it like this? That day started out so peacefully...."

*Flash back*

Lucy had been sleeping in her warm and comfy bed without a care in the world till loud banging on her door woke her up "Lucy! Your rent is coming up and I dont want it to be late like last month! If it is you better find somewhere else to live!"

Lucy groaned sitting up in her bed as she heard her landlady walk away and rubbed her eyes "she can be so loud in the morning..."

"She's even louder than Elfman..." Lucy's eyes quickly widened and she looked to her side to see Natsu trying to go back to sleep nuzzling his head deep into her pillow with Happy beside him 

"Ahhh! Natsu! Get out!" she quickly kicked them out of her bed covering herself with her bedsheets even though she was fully dressed

"Geez Lucy how come you never kick the bad guys that hard?"

"Aye sir.."

Natsu and Happy both got up groaning a bit and looked at Lucy with an angry expression on her face "what are you two doing in my house!?"

"Aww come on Lucy, your bed is so soft and warm that its hard for us to stay away" Lucy glared at both of them but sighed getting up

"Well sense you two are here anyway I guess we should talk about a job, as you two probably heard my rent is coming up so I need money" she walked over to her dresser and bent over starting to pick out her clothes for her day

"Hey Natsu look, Lucy's panties are the same color as your hair" Lucy blushes hard and quickly grabbed the small exceed pulling on his cheeks 

"Shut it you stupid cat!" Happy managed to get out of Lucy's grasp and flew over to Natsu hiding behind him

"Natsu, Lucy's being mean!" Lucy sighed grabbing her clothes walking towards the bathroom

"Im going to take a shower, you two head to the guild and pick out a job. And I mean it! No fighting or getting distracted! I need a job that at least pays 100,000 jewel, you guys need money as well"

"Hey Natsu, if Lucy gets kicked out couldn't she just come live with us?"

"Oh yeah your right Happy, what do you say Lucy wanna live with us?" Natsu saw her completely ignore him walking into the bathroom closing the door behind her

"I guess she didn't like the idea" Natsu jumped out the window with Happy heading towards the guild not knowing that on the other side of the door Lucy's face was completely red

"D-did Natsu just ask me to move in with him? He was probably just being friendly, like if I ever did end up getting kicked out. But... That would mean no rent, which means more money for clothes, and we are really good friends" Lucy started imagining herself living with Natsu but those thoughts led to thoughts of her and Natsu having dinner together, sitting close to the fireplace, and even sleeping together.

She quickly shook her head slapping ger cheeks "No Lucy! Bad thoughts bad thoughts bad thoughts!!"

She shook her head again starting to strip down and got in her shower sighing happily as she felt the warm water on her body. She started humming a song not being able to stop thinking about what Natsu had said "hmm... I guess it wouldn't be that bad... Maybe I should say yes. But what would everyone say? Its not like were dating but... I guess it wouldn't hurt to move in with him..."

Lucy smiled and turned off the water getting out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself "I have a good feeling about today"

*flashback ends*

Underneath the guild where the cells where June was handcuffed and was sitting against the wall with both Gajeel and Gray standing in front of the cell glaring at him "he still ain't talking?"

Gajeel shook his head glaring at the man sitting against the wall "He said the only person he'll talk to is Bunny Girl, apparently sense she beat him he's willing to talk to her"

Gray looked at the iron Dragon Slayer and shook his head "we are not letting her talk to him, especially now that we know he's responsible for what happened to Natsu"

Gajeel looked towards June and slammed his arm against the bars "hey! You really responsible for what happened to Salamander!"

They looked towards the quiet man who just sat there almost looking as if he were asleep. Gajeel slammed his arm against the cell again walking away "im gonna eat his arrows"

Gray watched him walk away then back at June clenching his fists "I may have let Lucy fight you but that doesn't mean I don't hate you. If you really are responsible you better hope the magic council shows up before we get a turn at you"

Gray started walking away till he heard him talking "send the blonde one down here and I'll talk to her, otherwise you guys arent getting any information out of me"

Gray looked at him out of the corner of his eye with the air around them starting to get colder. The floor around Gray was starting to freeze slowly spreading but stopped as Gray shook his head "Your lucky we dont kill our enemies, but your luck might run out" 

With that Gray walked out of the room slamming the door behind him. June smirked sitting there lighyly tapping the ground with his finger "things are definitely gonna get interesting, I wonder who they're gonna send. If they send him I wonder how these fairies are gonna handle it

Meanwhile, back upstairs Lucy was sitting on the bed looking at the scarf that she had been wearing for the past year on her lap. She was still hurting from the hit to her stomach but she got up wrapping it around her neck and slipped her boots on walking out the door. She walked back downstairs passing everyone as they whispered to each other with a few asking her questions. 

Gray was sitting at the bar with Juvia and noticed where Lucy was walking so he got up and grabbed her arm "where do you think your going? You should be resting"

Lucy snatched her arm away looking at him "im gonna go see him, if he was really responsible for what happened I need answers"

Geay shook his head moving closer "your not alright, you would have killed him out there if it wasn't for me and Gajeel"

Lucy glared back at him with a look that could kill with everyone looking at the two of them feeling the tension in the air. The guild was completely silent till they heard Makarov speak "Gray, let her see him. If Lucy feels like she must do this why should we stop her"

Gray just moved back to the bar starting to drink as Lucy looked at the master "thank you master"

"But if anything happens be sure to call for help" Lucy nodded walking into the room where the cells were with Makarov sighing where he was sitting

"I really hope she can control that anger inside her heart, she isn't the same girl that walked into the guild with Natsu and Happy almost every day. Hopefully getting yhe answers she desires will help her"

Down where the cells are Lucy was walking down the stairs passing the empty cells till she arrived at one with ice in front of it and a man sitting inside of the cell looking down at the floor "I knew you would show up eventually"

Lucy glared at him with her arms on her sides cenching her fists "why?"

June just laughed a bit and lifted his head up looking at her "why? Hmm... Probably because I was bored"

He laughed as Lucy clenched her fists tigther feeling tempted to grab her whip and do something she might later regret, but she shook her head and closed her eyes picturing her old best friend smiling at her and took a deep breath "how much do you know about what happened? You said you let that thing loose but did you have anything to do with it after that?"

June laughed a bit looking at Lucy with a mischievous grin "you miss your friend? That is what he was right? Friend? Because from what im seeing it seems you and him were more serious? Maybe you two even did the do"

Even though Lucy was mad she blushed at that, she quickly shook her head brushing away those thoughts "I asked you a question"

"And I asked you one, so how about you answer mine and I'll answer yours. That simple" June got up walking up to the metal bars looking at Lucy

"Fine. Yes, we were friends now answer mine. Did you have anything to do with it after you let that thing loose?" 

"Hmmm... Maybe" Lucy clenched her fists and grabbed his shirt through the bars slamming him against the bars 

"Tell me now!! Tell me what happened!!" Lucy had spent this past year crying and weeping over Natsu and she had finally gotten a clue to what had happened, and she planned on finding out what happened

"Ooh feisty huh? You know... You were actually one of the best fights I've ever had. How about you let me out and we have a round two?" Lucy glared at him then slammed him against the bars again letting him go walking away 

"Ahh you bitch! To think I was actually gonna take you to him" Lucy stopped walking as she heard him and walked back

"What are you talking about?" June smirked at her moving closer

"Your little buddy... He's alive. And all you gotta do to see him is let me go" Lucy looked at him then turned her back to him

"Your lying... We've been searching for him for a year. There's no way you have him" Lucy crossed her arms looking down

"Scouts honor, all you gotta do is let me go. I'll take you to him and then I'll just leave. So... Whats your answer?"

Lucy slowly turned back around and looked at him "if I let you go you'll take me to him?"

He nodded slowly leaning in "yep, he's fine. Just tied up, so what's your answer?"

Lucy clossed her eyes then looked at him "Natsu.... My answer is..."


	7. New Threat Approaching?

In a dark forest with a cloudy mist that seemed to swallow any light that entered the forest stood an old but stable mansion. Inside the mansion there was a man sitting on a throne like chair holding a golden staff in his arms almost as if he had a feeling someone was going to attack him. In front of him stood a table with multiple cards on it. The farthest one to the left had a picture of a bow and arrow on it, the one next to it had a hammer on it. The man sitting in the chair looked down at the cards then looked up at the darkness seeing a green haired woman walk out of the darkness towards him bowing in front of the table with her head down 

"Master, I am sorry to inform that June was captured inside Magnolia. On my way to meet him I learned that he was defeated by Fairy Tail's celstial mage Lucy Heartfilia" the man just continued to sit there and nodded slowly

"Lucy Heartfilia... Ah yes I remember. The Heartfilias have always been strong celestial mages. I can understand how she was able to defeat June, he was always the weakest in your rank" he looked at the green haired woman still bowing and moved his staff onto her shoulder

"Stand Sylvia, I have something I want you to do. I believe you know what it is" the green haired woman nodded standing up looking at him

"Yes of course master, it is about June's retrieval correct?" the man nodded looking at her

"Your as smart as always, yes it is about his retrieval. Magnolia is about a day's travel from here is it not? I want you to go to Fairy Tail and retrieve him. And if any of those Fairies get in your way... Make sure to clip their wings"

She nodded walking away till she heard him "wait a moment, I want to make things interesting. After all these years of living I have rarely seen fights that caught my attention"

She looked at him and watched as he picked up the card on the table with a hammer on it which he called her card. He looked at the multiple face down cards flipping one that was pitch black with red eyes in the center "ahh Eirene, this should definitely start getting interesting"

Sylvia nodded looking at her master "Eirene, of course master. She is a strong wizard that will be helpful on my mission. Is that all?"

The master looked down at the table and shook his head flipping another card with a picture of a red brain. He smirked slightly holding up the card showing it to her, her eyes widened as she saw the card and walked closer "m-master are you certain? After all h..."

She was silenced by the echo of the golden staff hitting the ground. She looked up to see him glaring at her "do you disagree with my choice Sylvia?"

She gulped and shook her head bowing towards him "o-of course not master, the three of us will complete this mission with complete success. You do not need to dirty your hands with these wizards"

He nodded looking at her "I surely hope not, now go gather them. I want you all to take care of this matter before they do anything to June"

She nodded quickly walking away into the darkness leaving the master alone. He looked towards his right shoulder that was covered in bandages under his robe "Fairy Tail...."

Back in Magnolia Gray was sitting at the bar inside Fairy Tail with Juvia sitting beside him noticing his worried look "Gray-sama, are you alright? You look really tense"

He nodded and looked at her "yeah Juvia im fine. Just worried is all, Lucy has been in there a while now and we haven't heard anything"

Even though Juvia had pushed away most thoughts of Lucy stealing Gray away from her the thought still oddly made her sick. She knew Gray would never cheat on her but a girl can get jealous can't she?

Juvia moved closer interlocking her arm with his "If Gray-sama is worried about Lucy then perhaps we should go check on her"

He looked at her and nodded standing up with her "ok, but let's just peek through the door. Lucy did want to talk to him alone after all"

Juvia and Gray walked over to the door leading down to the cells and slightly opened the door, both of them looking inside. But what they saw caused both of their eyes to widen, June was outside of his cell and Lucy seemed to be taking off the cuffs around his wrists. Gray didn't know what was going on but he had to stop this.

He quickly slamed the door open running down the stairs towards them amd saw the key about to enter the keyhole. He ran up to Lucy pushing her into the wall before she could react sending the keys flying and kicked June right back into the cell locking it. He sighed leaning against the cell brushing his hand through his hair

"Oww! What the hell was that for Gray!?" Lucy stood up walking over to him glaring at him

"Why the hell was he out of the cell!? And why the hell were you about to take those cuffs off?! After everything that you went through to take him down you were just gonna let him go!?" Gray yelled louder than Lucy which caused most of the guild members head down to see what was going on

"He said that his guild has Natsu locked up! He said that if I let him go he would show me where they were holding him!" she yelled back even louder hoping to win this argument

Gray looked at her in disbelief and shook his head groaning "are you serious!? He's obviously lying! He just wants you to let him go!"

Lucy shook her head glaring at him "and what if he's not!? Natsu could be out there right now begging for us to go save him and we're just here arguing! I say we follow this lead and g..."

"Dammit Lucy Natsu's dead!! Im sorry but it's time that you accept it! Natsu died a year ago and he isn't coming back!!" Lucy's glare dissapeared as she was interrupted by Gray and looked down looking at her feet with her hair covering her eyes

Everyone was quiet watching what would happen next and it turned out Gray was the first to say something "Lucy... Im sorry. I know it's been tough on you and I shouldn't have said that" 

Gray rubbed the back of his neck feeling bad for saying that and waited to see what Lucy would say. Unfortunately instead of saying something they all saw a tear stream down her cheek as she started walking past everyone upstairs and out of the guild. 

Most of the guild members tried to console her or ask if she was alright but she just passed through all of them. Gray stood there feeling terrible but he felt even worse as everyone glared at him. "Fine, im the bad guy in this. But its true, we've been searching for months and we haven't come up with anything" 

Everyone decided it was best not to talk about it and headed back upstairs leaving Gray alone there. He sighed leaning against a wall till he heard laughing "oh man that was hilarious"

Gray clenched his fists walking in front of a cell looking at June on the ground "dont. Talk to her. If you tell her something like that again I might need to be put in a cell" 

Gray started walking out of the room till he noticed something, Juvia wasn't there anymore. Even though everyone left he was sure that at least she would stay,was he really that mean to Lucy?

He walked back upstairs trying to avoid the glares he was still getting from most of the guild and searched for the water mage. He figured it was best not to ask anyone so he decides to just keep searching, eventually he found her walking out of the girls bathroo sweating a bit "hey Juvia you alright?"

Juvia jumped from not seeing Gray right behind her and nodded quickly "y-yes of course Gray-sama! Juvia is fine!"

Gray nodded slowly a bit weirded out by her behavior but shruged it off "hey you wanna go get a movie and relax at my place? I don't think its best for me to be here right now"

Juvia nodded smiling but as Gray leaned in to kiss his girlfriend she quickly moved away avoiding it "hey whats wrong? My breath stink or something?"

She quickly shook her head looking at Gray "no! No! Gray-sama's breath is fine! Juvia just... Juvia thinks we should save the kissing for when we're home... Alone."

Gray smiled and nodded, it was rare for Juvia to talk like that but he enjoyed it when she did. They both walked out of the guild heading towards a movie rental place both hurrying a bit sense it was getting late. Back in the guild the Iron Dragon Slayer was leaning against a wooden pillar away from everyone else chewing on a metal bolt. 

"I still dont understand why you prefer staying away from everyone" Gajeel looked to his side to see the petite bluenette standing there looking at him and shrugged

"It's really only fun around here when someone starts an all out brawl, even though there haven't been many lately" Levy nodded moving closer leaning against another side of the pillar

"Yeah... There haven't been alot. Im worried about Lu-chan, you've got good ears so you obviously heard what went down downstairs. Do you really think Natsu's... You know" Gajeel looked at Levy looking down and placed his hand on her head causing her to look up

"Come on shrimp, stop looking down. That's probably why your so short, of you don't start looking up you'll never grow" Levy blushed a bit at what he had said and started hitting him repeatedly on the chest 

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Gajeel simply laughed at her adorable behavior, Levy was one of the only guild members that didn't irritate the hell out of him. She had been one of the first ones to give him a chance after the Phantom Lord incident and he was determined to use that second chance wisely. Even though her and about everyone in the guild had forgiven him for what he did he still felt bad about it. That's why he was gonna do everything he can to make up for it

He crouched down low to her thighs and wrapped one arm around the back of her thighs picking her up on his shoulder "come on shrimp I'll walk you home"

Levy blushed as she suddenly got picked up and started hitting Gajeels back in an attempt to get him to put her down but after a couple of minutes at it she gave up. She noticed people staring as they walked which caused Levy to blush and whisper "Gajeel... Put me down... Please"

Gajeel honestly loved when Levy acted like that and put her down as they walked "fine, but stay close. Its hard to see someone so short"

Levy puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms as she started walking faster trying to lose him even though she honestly didn't want to. It was like a game they played, he would make some joke about how short she was and then she would get mad but in the end they always smiled at each other. 

Gajeel moved in front of her and looked down at her with a grin "do I have to pick you up again? Because you know I will shrimp"

Levy blushed but smiled and walked with him towards her house and looked at his hand then looked around to make sure no one was looking and slowly grabbed it. She wasn't sure sure if he had noticed but smiled as she felt their fingers intertwine. She noticed Gajeel trying to look away acting as if he hadn't noticed but she knew he did. 

They held hands all the way till they got to a small house with Levy unlocking the door smiling at Gajeel "thank you for walking me home. Oh and I almost forgot.. Come close I gotta tell you something"

Gajeel leaned with his ear towards her mouth "what is it shri...?"

Gajeel was cut off as he felt her kiss his cheek with a small smirk on her face as he shut up "your not the only one who had tricks up his sleeve. Now hurry up and get home"

She closed the door smiling at him and Gajeel smiled back before starting to walk. He looked up at the sky as he walked smiling at the memory of the kiss on the cheek. It wasn't long till he got to his house and unlocked the door walking inside, he walked over to the living room sitting down on the couch as he heard a voice behind him "you coming to bed soon?"

"Yeah in a bit, just let me relax a bit. And why do we have to keep this a secret? I don't get why we can't just tell people were together" Gajeel felt small soft hands on his shoudler start massaging

"I just dont want everyone getting in our business, especially Mira. Just please keep this a secret" Gajeel sighed and nodded relaxing at the feeling of her hands

"Fine but if I have to keep walking off after I drop you off to just have to walk right back here you owe me" 

"Oh really? I owe you?" Levy asked leaning in closer to his ear

"Yeah you owe me, and besides its kind of stupid for me to have to walk around after I..." Gajeel had stood up and turned around but he saw something that took the air out of his lungs. There in front of him stood levy in a black red lace bra and panties set with a see through gown on with her hair down not being held back by a headband. He watched as she turned around with a smirk swaying her hips as she headed for the bedroom "Like I said.. I have tricks up my sleeve as well" 

She walked into the bedroom with the Dragon Slayer not too far behind as he jumped over the couch running to the bedroom

Meanwhile in another part of town Juvia and Gray were cuddling on his couch watching a romantic movie on the lacrima vision. Juvia's back was against the arm rest with her legs on top of Gray's as he rubbed them. Even though he was an Ice Mage he definitely knew how to get her warm. "Hey Juvia, you ever think about us getting married?"

Juvia's shot wide open and she blushed hard looking at Gray "M-m-married? G-Gray-sama and J-Juvia?"

Gray laughed a bit and nodded "yeah me and you, unless you would like me to marry someone else" Gray teased

Juvia immediately sat up and pushed him back onto the couch with her arms on his shoulders "who is she!? Juvia will destroy new love rival!"

Gray quickly put his hands up moving hers off his shoudlers "calm down Juvia I was kidding. You know your the only one for me"

Juvia smiled at his kind words and leaned down locking lips with the ice mage as he moved his hands to her hips which led to even more hot passionate kisses. Gray stood up moving his hands to her thighs as she wrapped her legs around his waist in fear of being dropped and continued kissing him. Gray moaned and started walking to his bedroom closing the door behind them

Meanwhile outside in the snow Happy was flying towards Lucy's apartment hoping that she was alright. He had wanted to chase after her earlier but Mira had told him it was best if he just gave her some space.

He was getting cold from the snow so he decided to hurry up and get home before it got even colder. He got to the apartment and unlocked the door with a spare key Lucy had given him and flew inside closing the door behind him. He flew upstairs to her room being quiet in case she was asleep but his eyes widened at what he saw as he entered the room

"Oh no...."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone thanks for reading my story. Hope you enjoyed it, leave a review its always appreciated. Till next time


	8. Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fairy tail gets some visitors

It was a snowy night in Magnolia when Happy got to his house which was Lucy's apartment for now. About a year ago the guild had lost Natsu on a job, Lucy continues to blame herself for not being able to help him back then. Everyone has mostly adjusted to not having him around but they do tend to reminisce about him but not in front of Lucy, almost every time someone mentions him she tends to break down into tears. Lucy still denies the fact that Natsu is gone though, she believes that he survived the monster attack and made it out somehow. That's why it hurt her so badly when Gray just burst out telling her that Natsu is dead and gone. She ran out of the guild running past all the guild members, Happy was gonna chase after her but Mira told him it was best just to let her go. But after what Happy just saw entering her room he didn't know it that was the wrong or right choice.

He was looking up at a bunch of papers stuck to her wall mentioning sightings of a fire wizard, sightings of dead and even wildfires. There were strings connecting them and at the start was a paper with the date that they had gone on that job.

He heard light snoring and looked to his left to see Lucy asleep on the bed with even more papers around her. Happy sighed flying up onto the bed looking at her "Not again"

Lucy did the exact same thing during Fairy Tail's disbanding and even a couple of months ago when she thought she found a clue to Natsu's whereabouts. Happy jumped up on the bed seeing one of the papers under wet, obviously from crying herself to sleep. He moved closer wipping her face and started collecting all the papers. 

He placed them all on her desk and even managed to put a pillow under Lucy's head even though she was pretty heavy. He laid down looking at her and slowly fell asleep wishing that everything could go back to how it was.

Meanwhile, in Gray's house he was sleeping soundly until he heard a splashing sound and slowly sat up rubbing his eyes seeing that the water mage wasn't next to him "Juvia?"

He got up looking around and saw light coming from the bathroom door "Juvia you in there?"

As he was about to push the door open he felt it slam against the door frame pushing him back "o-oh Gray-sama, Juvia didn't know you were awake"

He could tell something was up with her voice, it was as if she was nervous "I was asleep but then I heard something. You alright in there?"

"Y-yes Juvia is fine! Please go back to bed" Gray sighed knowing she was hiding something and started pushing the door open feeling her pushing back on the other side

"Juvia let me in, I know something is up with you" they kept pushing the door, Juvia trying to keep it closed and Gray trying to get it open

"Ok! Juvia will open the door!" he stood there waiting and saw her open the door slightly with sweat on her face

"Juvia what's wrong? You've been acting weird. And why won't you let me into the bathroom?" Juvia blushed looking down then looked at him 

"J-Juvia... Isn't feeling too well. She is just.. Taking care of business" Gray looked at her confused till his eyes widened and I looked away

"O-oh you mean... Sorry Juvia! Should have said that to start with... Just come back to bed when your done" she nodded and Gray walked back to bed laying down

"I've known you for a long time... And I know when your lying about something" he mumbled that to himself before falling back asleep.

In the morning Happy woke up to the noise of flying papers and rustling, he sat up and opened his eyes only to see Lucy still working on the giant jigsaw puzzle on the wall. He knew she wouldn't stop unless someone made her so he flew up and landed on her head looking down at her 

"Good morning Lucy, how did you sleep?" as he predicted, she just mumbled something and kept working on the wall. He knew he had to do something else

He sniffed the air then looked at her "ewww you stink Lucy" 

That immediately caused her to freeze and she picked him up looking at him "I do not! Your probably just smelling all those fish bones in the kitchen!"

"Nuh-uh! You're really smelling today!" Lucy glared at him before walking into the bathroom and slammed the door closed. She sniffed herself actually worried she smelled and decided to take a shower even if she wasn't smelling. She undressed and started the water stepping inside while Happy was in the other room thinking of what to do

"I need to get her out of here... If I rip it all up she'll get mad but if I ask her to leave she'll just ignore me" he sat there thinking for a while till he got the perfect idea 

Lucy had been in the shower for about half an hour when she steppef out and started drying her hair, while she was wrapping a towel around her body and walked towards the door she groaned smelling something foul. She opened the door looking at her room covered in fish bones and uncooked fish and on the bed stood Happy happily chewing on a fish

"HAPPY!!! What the hell!?" Happy groaned covering his ears and looked at her as she ran to the window opening it gasping for clean air

"Luuuucy, why did you yell?" He turned around in time to see the Celestial Mage glaring at him

"Oh you wanna know why I yelled? Well I got a question for you. Why is my room covered in fish!?!?" she moved closer pulling on his cheeks

"I got hungry..." Happy looked up at her with begging eyes as she pulled harder and let go moving to her dresser pulling out clothes

"So you ate thirty fishes!? Ugh I cant even stand the smell, come on were leaving till this place airs out"Happy nodded grabbinh his bag with a sly smirk on his face knowing his plan worked and flew outside waiting till Lucy walked out dressed

Happy smiled at her and landed on her head as they walked, unfortunately Lucy picked up Happy looking at him "you think you can stink up my house then get to sit on my head?"

Happy pouted up at her with his tail swaying lightly "But Luuuucy, Natsu alwa..."

Happy quickly put his paw over his mouth realizing what he had just said and saw Lucy tuck her face into Natsu's scarf hiding her face "Lets just get going..."

Happy simply nodded as Lucy carried him in her arms as they walked towards the guild. Neither said a single word as they got to the guild and walked in, and as usual everyone was in their own groups of people all chatting about jobs and some recent gossip. 

They both walked up to the bar being greeted by Mira "Good morning you two!"

Lucy just sat down on a stool setting Happy down on the bar with both of them mumbling "Hey..."

Mira looked at both of them a bit worried seeing that they were both pretty depressed and smiled at them "hey, how about I cook you two something delicious? Anything you want"

Happy immediately stood up smiling wide at the barmaid "really!? Even raw fish pancakes!?"

She nodded petting him lightly and looked towards Lucy "what about you Lucy? Anything special you want?"

Lucy just shook her head keeping her face hidden in Natsu's scarf "No thank you Mira, im fine" 

Mira nodded with a small sigh as she turned around and started cooking the pancakes for Happy "Hey Mira, had the magic council come and picked up the dude downstairs?"

Mira shook her head as she turned towards Lucy "No not yet, they contacted us and said that they would be here to take him into custody today or either tomorrow"

Lucy sighed nodding playing with her fingers as she looked down at her lap "I wish he would just get out of here..."

Mira looked at her as she started serving Happy his pancakes mixed with fish "do you actually believe what he said. You know... About Natsu..."

Lucy looked squeezing the end of the scarf and looked at her "I dont know... I guess after all this time I was just hoping for some answer to where he is... Or wa..."

Lucy couldn't finish her sentence as the doors to the guild got completely destroyed into small pieces, everyone in the guild got up looking at the door as a green haired woman walked in with an old looking man beside her using a cane to walk but what surprised everyone most was who else was beside them. Beside them was a small girl only as high as the womans waist obviously very young, she was looking sad and staring at the ground but everyone could feel some type of dark magic coming off of her.

The green haired woman walked up to the center of the guild as everyone watched them carefully waiting to see what would happen "Hello Fairy Tail, im going to cut to chase and say that you have our comrade locked up. If you return him to us we will let you all live"

Everyone just stared at her in disbelief till Erza walked up to her "so he's your comrade? The man who caused the death of our dear friend?"

The woman walked closer with a small smirk on her face "Erza Scarlet... I must admit, I have always admired you. I surely hoped that when we first met it would be under better circumstances. Now... If you could be so kind as to return our comrade"

Erza walked closer till their faces were only a couple inches from each other "he's not going anywhere, and if he is your ally that makes you our enemy"

"I suppose we have to wait then..." the green haired woman grabbed a hammer that was attached to her waist and tried slamming it against Erza but she managed to requip a sword in time to block it. 

Unfortunately she saw her sword transform into a block of metal allowing her to hit Erzas chest sending her into the ground "Eirene, Shane, you two handle the rest while I deal with Titania"

The girl and old man nodded as they continued walking with Sylvia lifting the hammer slamming it back down but Erza jumped out of the way standing back up requipping another sword "that isn't a normal hammer is it?"

She shook her head running up to her slamming the hammer into Erza but Erza moved out of the way attempting to slash her with her sword unfortunately Sylvia blocked it with the hammer and the sword tuned into a block of metal again.

Meanwhile the small girl and old man continued walking but Mira changed into her Satan Soul and moved in front of them "your not going anywhere"

She lunged at them but as soon as she got close some black type of magic emanating from the small girl slammed Mira into the wall. Everyone's eyes widened as that small girl had just slammed one of the strongest wizards into the guild into a wall but what surprised them most is what they saw her say with tears down her eyes "im so sorry..."

Everyone else started trying to blast them with magic but that black magic that the girl was using kept blocking every attack, they kept looking around as if they were just casually walking till they spotted the door down to the cells and walked towards it. They kept walking till the man felt something wrap around his leg and looked at some blue light with yellow light intertwined with it and saw a blonde woman standing there "your not taking him anywhere!" 

Lucy tugged on the whip causing the man to fall on his back but as she started pulling him towards her a red lightning crawled up the whip and when it got to Lucy it blasted her back to the wall. Happy and Cana quickly ran over to her checking if she was alright as the girl and the man walked down into the cells.

They walked up to June's cell and he smiled as he looked at them "oh its you two, I guess I was wrong about who they would send"

Some black magic came from the girl and slashed the bars into nothing as June stood up "okay lets get going"

They all started walking upstairs as everyone watched them walk back into the main hall and saw Erza and Sylvia both slam into the ground creating a small crater. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw Sylvia stand up over Erza looking towards her comrades "ah there you are June, I suppose our mission is almost completed then. I enjoyed our fight Titania perhaps we can fight again some day"

She walked away from an unconcious Erza as they started walking towards the doors but turned around to see Mira lunging towards them but the old man moved in front of her taking the blow of the hit sending him back.

The girl had some magic come from her slamming Mira into the wall again amd exploded knocking her out. Sylvia sighed looking at June "I suppose we should get those cuffs off of you"

He nodded turning his back towards her and she slammed her hammer down on the cuffs but instead of breaking them it turned the metal into a spike going through his chest

He fell onto the ground looking up at her as she looked at him "we couldn't have you leaking any information to them. If it makes you feel better... We never really cared for you"

They walked off with the black magic covering them and they dissapeared as some of the guild members ran up to June trying to help him but all they could do was hear his final words "Nasia..."

They had carried the injured people up to the infirmary with them waking up after a while and everyone started fixing up the guild as Gray and Juvia walked in with both their eyes widening "whoa.. What happened here"

Macao looked at him as he fixed a table "we got attacked... We were just lucky it was early that not many people were here yet"

Gray nodded starting to help fix up everything "well who attacked?"

"It was some guys here to bust out that dude we had locked up but it turns out that they were just here to kill him..."

They both kept quiet as they fixed up everything and everyone else had gotten up from the infirmary and started helping but Gray noticed somethin wrong with Happy as he sat on the bar looking sad "hey Happy whats wrong?"

Happy looked up at him with the sad expression on his face "Lucy still hasn't woken up..."

Gray looked at him a bit worried but gave him a reasurring smile "hey dont worry. Lucy's tough, she probably just needs more rest"

Happy smiled up at him and nodded "yeah, your right" 

Unfortunately, everyone would soon find out that Gray was dead wrong


	9. New World

It had been a day since the attack on Fairy Tail, Sylvia, Eirene, and Shane has arrived at their hideout in the woods unfortunately the attack that Shane had taken to protect his comrades did more damage than they thought. He was currently laying in a bed breathing shallow breaths as Sylvia stood beside him, she was looking down at him knowing what was to follow. He was an old man after all. But her emotions weren't what you would expect, she wasn't crying or holding his hand. She was looking down at him shaking her head looking down at him with a disgusted look

"Honestly Shane, I could have easily blocked that attack. What did you expect? I was the one who had defeated Titania after all. I knew you were too old to go out into a fight, I tried of warn master about this but he just wouldn't listen" she looked down at him unconcious and sighed walking out of the room and saw Eirene sitting down on the ground hugging her legs

"Is Mr. Shane going to be alright?" Sylvia simply looked down at the young girl with no emotion on her face

"I still cant believe your here, a young girl like you doesnt belong here. Especially not one that still sucks her thumb" Eirene tucked her head between her legs hiding her trembling lip

"I dont wanna be here... Its her that wants to be here. And I also didn't want to hurt those nice people...." Sylvia simply sat down next to the girl and patted her shoulder

"You should get some sleep, now that we've attacked them there is a good chance they decide to come after us. We will obviously win but we should be rested for when they arrive" the small girl shook her head hugging her legs tighter

"I dont want to fight... I dont want to hurt anyone else" Sylvia simply rolled her eyes getting tired of hearing those same words over and over

"Well what are you going to do? From what I've seen she's the one in control of your magic, and even if you do somehow overpower her the master would not want a small child with no possible use here" she stood up looking down at the girl as she started sucking her thumb

"And honestly, you need to out grow that habit. What are you? Six? Seven?" the small girl shook her head up at her speaking quietly

"Im five... And doing this helps calm me..." the small girl got up and started walking away from Sylvia towards her room, unfortunately... Thats when she started speaking

"Ooh that was fun wasn't it? But next time lets make sure to take a life, what do you say?" Eirene tried to ignore the voice as she started walking faster

"I already told you, I dont want to hurt anyone. Why cant you just go away?" 

"Awe but we're such a good team, and besides your the one who wanted me here remember. Your the one who wanted this power" she shook her head covering her ears trying to block her out

"I didn't want this! I didn't want this!" she quickly ran into her room jumping in bed and hid under the covers

"You sure about that? Cause you were so happy when I appeared, you had such a cute smile. Too bad I made it go away or more specifically the.." the voice couldn't finish talking as the girl screamed loudly releasing a pulse of magic energy 

"GO AWAY!!" she screamed with everything she had then poked her head out from under the covers looking around the dark room. She knew it wasn't gone forever but she valued any time she got away from that terrible voice

She layed down in bed hugging her pillow tightly as she slowly cried herself to sleep hoping that somehow someone would help her.

Meanwhile back at the guild Gajeel was walking up to the infirmary where his secret girlfriend was sitting with Happy watching over Lucy. They had gotten there a little bit after Gray and Juvia and were informed about the attack. The second Levy had heared that Lucy was still asleep she immediately ran up to the infirmary to check on her friend. When he entered he saw her sitting down on a chair looking at an unconscious Lucy

"Hows bunny girl doing?" he walked up to her looking down at the sleeping blonde

"She still hasnt opened her eyes..." Gajeel sighed looking at the woman he loved knowing he couldn't do anything

"Here, I brought you some food. You too cat" they both took the food as happy start chewing on it still looking sad. Levy took small bites not looking away from Lucy hoping that she would wake up soon

"She's been asleep for nearly a whole day, im getting really worried now. She should have woken up by now Gajeel" she looked up at him with with pleading eyes as if asking him to do something

"She'll be fine, she's one of the toughest people I know. All we have to do is wait" she smiled and nodded feeling calm as he put his arm around her shoulder 

"Your right, Lu-chan will wake up before we know it. Right Happy" Levy looked towards the Exceed and smiled as she saw a smile appear on his face 

"Aye sir!" they all smiled and sat there eating and talking not knowing that Lucy was in another place entirely

She groaned as she saw the sunlight come in through the window and covered her eyes with her left hand and saw a wedding ring on it. She just shrugged it off closing her eyes till her eyes flew wide open and she quickly sat up throwing off the covers as she stared at the ring "what the!? W-why do I have a wedding ring on!?" 

She soon realized that the wedding ring wasnt the only odd thing, she was laying in a king sized bed and the room she was in looked odd yet very familiar. She slowly got out of bed looking around and saw clothes scattered on the ground with papers mixed in. 

Lucy stepped around everything and looked into the mirror which surprised her the most, she could swear that she looked at least an inch taller and... Older. It wasn't like she was seventy or wrinkly but she was definitely older than she actually is. She slowly touched her face and pulled her cheek making sure that this was real but was quickly interupted as she heared a scream come from outside.

She didn't know where she was but she knew she had to help whoever screamed. She ran out the door seeing a hallway with multiple doors and ran towards where she heard the scream, she ran down a flight of stairs and found herself in a living room. 

Her eyes widened at what she saw, in front of her was a small girl with pink hair giggling and screaming as she got tickled. She completely froze however when she saw who was tickling the girl, it was Natsu. She didn't understand any of this, one second the guild was getting attacked and the next she wakes up in a new bed with Natsu and a small girl in the house.

She didn't have any time to process it as the small girl ran up hiding behind her leg pointing at Natsu "mama! The tickle monster!"

She just stared down at the girl and even though she didn't know the girl she felt a motherly instinct go through her and picked her up "Natsu! You know she's ticklish"

She wondered how she knew that as Natsu walked up "sorry Lucy, did we wake you up?" 

She nodded holding the girl close then shook her head setting her down and smiled kindly "sweety, go play. Me and papa have some things that we need to talk about"

She nodded up at Lucy as she ran off upstairs and she looked at Natsu "what is going?"

Natsu looked at her confused and walked closer "what do you mean what's going on? I was just tickling her"

Lucy shook her head looking him in the eye"thats not what im talking about, your... Your supposed to be dead!"

Natsu looked at her even more confused walking closer placing his hands on her cheeks looking into her eyes "Lucy, what's going on?"

"T-the mission.. Your scarf.. The blood.." she shook her head feeling like she was going crazy, she pulled away from Natsu walking towards the door but as she opened it she bumped into someone. She groaned a bit and looked at the person but she couldn't believe who she saw

"Oh Lucy im so sorry are you alright?" Lucy simply nodded slowly still staring up at her

"M-mama..." Lucy was looking at her mother and father both standing there looking at her. She didn't know how this was possible but she just chose to ignore it as she hugged her mom tightly

"Lucy are you alright?" Layla rubbed Lucy's back like how she used to when she was upset and smiled as she saw Lucy smile up at her

"Im sorry mama... I-its just really good to see you, you too papa" she hugged both of them tightly as she felt her mind fill with memories of both them living a long happy life, helping her join Fairy Tail and even them at her and Natsu's wedding

She slowly pulled away walking back inside with them as they all sat down at the table as Natsu started serving breakfast. She saw their little girl run into the room sitting down on a chair but Lucy grabbed her setting her in her lap fixing her messy hair

"How's my favorite granddaughter doing today?" asked Lucy's father, she smiled watching their daughter say how happy she was today. Lucy honestly couldn't be happier, she had all the people she loved right here with her and even a little cute pink haired bonus

Meanwhile back in the guild, Makarov had called in Porlyussica and they were sitting in the infirmary looking over an unconscious Lucy "Okay Makarov im going to need all the details if you want me to fix this brat"

Makarov sighed looking up at the woman, this required a bit of explaining "I suppose I should start from the very begging. About a year and a half ago a dark guild called 'Blood Hornet' became active on the councils radar, they were said to be a myth but when they started attacking other guilds and towns they were proved to be real. Sense we were able to take down the Balam Alliance they decided we would be the best to take them down and so I sent Gajeel undercover. He recently returned with little information but because of him we were able to captute one of their members. Unfortunately that led to even more problems, they attacked us to dispose of him sense he might be a liability and during the attack one of their members hit Lucy with some kind of spell. And so she still hasn't woken up"

"Your guild always seems to get involved with these terrible people.. But even I have heared of this guild, I thought they were just a myth as well. It is said that their master has been living for many years and is a skilled wizard that uses a forbidden magic. If this girl was attacked by one of their spells I surely hope it was nothing too deadly"

Makarov nodded hoping that Lucy would hopefully be alright and wake up soon. Outside in the main hall of the guild Gray and Juvia were looking towards the corner of the guild where Erza was standing looking out the window "she's been like that ever since the attack..."

Juvia nodded looking at her feeling a bit bad for her, not only had she been extremely quiet after she was defeated but she had also lost a number of her swords. They were just metal cubes, she obviously had multiple swords but she just sat there looking at the multiple metal cubes on the table. 

Juvia gulped as she slowly got up and walked towards the red head "E-Erza-san? Juvia and the others were wondering if you were alright?"

Erza simply continued looking at the metal cube till she crushed it in her hand causing Juvia to jump a bit. And even though Erza looked at her with a sweet smile they all knew something was wrong "yes Juvia, im perfectly fine. No need to worry"

Juvia simply nodded quickly knowing Erza wouldn't hurt her but she was still really scared. She was about to say something till she groaned and covered her mouth with one hand running off to the bathroom. Gray and Erza both quickly ran to the bathroom but as soon as Gray stepped inside Erza punched him out of the bathroom.

Erza was surprised as she found Juvia on her knees puking inside of a toilet, Erza didn't know what was going on but she crouched down holding back the bluenetes hair "Juvia are you alright?" 

Juvia looked back at her about to speak till she quickly turned her head around puking into the toilet again, this continued for a bit till she finally stopped and was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall "ugh... Juvia feels terrible"

Erza nodded crouching down as she started wiping sweat off of her forehead "Juvia whats going on?" 

Juvia looked down at her lap then back up at her, Juvia and Erza weren't the closest of friends but they were definitely close. They had even shared a sleeping bag on a mission, even though she originally wanted to share it with Gray

"Juvia... Has been keeping a secret from everyone... Erza-san please promise that you'll keep Juvia's secret" Erza smiled and nodded feeling honored that Juvia would trust her with this secret, whatever it was

Back outside Gray was still waiting for either of them to exit the bathroom, he had noticed Juvia acting weirder than usual lately but now his suspicions were confirmed. He waited outside for a bit till he heard the door open and saw Erza walk out "Gray, Juvia is going through a difficult time right now so I need you to give her anything she wants. No matter what she asks of you you do it understand?"

Gray was really surprised at this but as soon as he was about to say something he saw a sword at his throat and Erza glaring at him "understand?"

He gulped and nodded quickly knowing this was the worst time to disobey Erza "y-yes mam"

She nodded letting the sword vanish as Juvia stepped out smiling at Gray and they walked away, Erza smiled at them and thought to herself 'I could be a great couple counselor'

They all sat down with eachother eating and talking till they saw the master walk onto the stage looking at them "Listen up brats! I know that you all have been worried about Lucy and thanks to Porlyussica we finally have a diagnosis. It appears that Lucy was hit by a dream spell, it has locked her in her own perfect dream world and the only way for her to wake up is to reject the perfect world"

Everyone's eyes widened as they heard that and started discussing what Lucy's perfect dream world would be "listen up! We have come up with a plan on how to get her out, we tried to contact her using Warrens telepathy magic unfortunately it blocks out his magic. Luckily, we can send someone into her mind using his magic"

Everyone started discussing again and some were even willing to volunteer to enter her mind, in order to save her and also to get a peek at this perfect world "but there will be a cost, if you fail to convince Lucy to reject the dream you will be stuck in the world as well"

At the news of this some people started retracting their offer to voluntee, scared that they might end up trapped there forever. The master looked at them himself wondering who he could send, after all this wouldn't be an easy task. "I'll do it!"

Everyones eyes turned to Erza who was standing now looking at the master "I shall enter Lucy's mind and convince her to reject it"

The master looked at her for a second before he nodded "very well then. Erza, Warren come to the infirmary. Its best that we do this as soon as possible"

Even though he just asked for Erza and Warren the whole guild were on their feet walking to the infirmary. They had laid Erza down in a bed beside Lucy with Warren in the middle of them "okay Erza there's some things you should know, you won't be able to use magic inside this world and we have no idea what you'll see so be careful"

Erza nodded knowing this might be risky but was determined to do this "Erza"

Erza looked at her feet to see Happy standing at the foot of the bed looking up at her "Your gonna bring Lucy back right?"

She gave him a big smile and nodded "yes Happy, Im going to bring her back to us"

She saw a tear of joy in the exceeds eyes before she laid her head down looking at Warren and nodded. He placed his hands on both of their foreheads with a magic circle appearing on both of his hands, Erza felt her body start vibrating till she was knocked out. She groaned as she finally opened her eyes but saw that she wasn't in a bed anymore, she stood up seeing that she was in a field of grass and looked around at the bright green grass and the blue sky

"Everything appears to be normal, at least Lucy doesn't have a crazy imagination" she started walking looking around at her surroundings till she found herself overlooking Magnolia. She realized she was just outside the city and started walking towards it 

"Everything appears to be the same..." she walked further into town being careful about who she ran into sense there was still a risk of something going wrong. She walked around town till she found herself at Lucy's house and managed to sneak in without anyone seeing her but her eyes widened at what she saw.

It was completely empty, it looked like no one had been here for years. She walked into the empty room that she had come to known as Lucy's room and saw that there was nothing. "Where could she be... This is her dream world after all"

She left Lucy's house hoping to find her somewhere else and started heading to the guild. She made sure to walk through alleys and hidden paths in case someone might see her, she didn't know if there was any danger in communicating with these people but it was better to be safe then sorry

She had managed to make it to the guild and was happy that the towns layout was the same as in real life. She snuck onto the side of the guild and her eyes widened at what she saw. There were kids, multiple kids running around and playing with each other. She took a closer look through the window hoping to make out who their parents were but she was hit on the head getting knocked out by someone. "Who are you?"


	10. Awakening?

She slowly opened her eyes still a bit dizzy, probably from a concussion. She tried to put her hands on the ground to push her up but when she tried to move them she found them in handcuffs chained to the ground. She couldn't remember what had happened, where she was, or how she got where she was. She groaned concentrating hard till she finally remembered, the attack, Lucy getting hit by a spell, her entering Lucy's mind. She quickly tried getting up but was retrained by the chains on her arms, she was about to try and requip a sword unfortunately there were two problems with that. One, these were magic canceling handcuffs and two, Warren had told her that her magic wouldn't work here so she had to think of another plan.

"Ah so your finally awake are you?" she quickly turned her head to find herself standing on the other side of the cell door, another Erza. Except, this one looked older, a bit taller and perhaps even a bit more mature

"I would like to know why you look like me and why you were sneaking around the guild. Did one of the dark guilds send you?" Erza just looked up at her older self still a bit amazed by how she was talking with another version of herself, of course there was Edolas Erza Knightwalker but this was possibly an exact match of herself

"I am not your enemy, and I do not seek to cause any of you harm. I simply wish to talk with Lucy" she sat up with her arms still chained behind her looking up at the other Erza

"Lucy? What do you want with her? And you still haven't amswered my question, why do you look like me?" the other Erza leaned closer trying to see any difference, well besides the age

"Please, I am begging you. Just allow me to speak with Lucy thats all im asking" Erza didn't know if it was smart to tell her the truth, it could either cause this world to collapse on itself or she would just think she was insane

"I already told you, tell me why you look li.." The other Erza was cut off as the door slammed open and they both heared someone running down the stairs 

"MOM! MOM! Cobalt wont stop trying to take a bite out of my sword!" Erza's eyes widened as she saw a young blue haired boy run up to her older self. He was wearing small brown boots, shorts, and a plain t-shirt with a sword strapped to his back. He also had his eyes

The older Erza sighed crouching down so she was at the same height as the boy "Simon, what have I told you? Dont pull your sword out at the guild unless you have to, you know the other children will want to use it and Cobalt will obviously try and take a bite out of it. I'll have a talk with him later but for now just go tell aunt Levy if he keeps bothering you okay?"

"Okay mom, oh and would it be okay if I slept over at Nashi's tonight? Pretty please?" she smiled at him lightly pulling on his cheek

"I dont know, you think your old enough to spend a night away from home?" she said teasing him

He managed to pull away and nodded looking at her with eyes of determination "yes! As the son of the seventh guild master I am old enough!" 

His body was covered in yellow light as he flew up out of the room "and what have I told you about using Meteor in doors!"

Erza smiled at how they interacted so cutely, mother and son. "You have a very nice son, Simon is it?"

She nodded still smiling at the door her son had just ran.. Flew through "yes, he's named after a dear friend of mine who had passed away a long time ago"

She quickly shook her head as her face went from happy to serious "enough about my son, I still want my answers. Why do you want to see Lucy and why do you look like me?"

Erza looked down not knowing what to do, she obviously knew how stubborn she was and she wouldn't let her out of the cell till she got what she wanted. "I have nothing to say to you.. I already told you, I want to talk to Lucy"

The older Erza simply glared at her walking out the dungeon upstairs where she saw the guild members laughing and cheering as they usually do with the new children of the guild off in their own area playing with each other.

She saw her son talking with the other kids as a dark blue haired boy snuck up behind him trying to take sword so that he could take a bite. Luckily, Erza had trained her son well so the second he got close Simon turned around tackling him which led to a friendly fight of sword vs. Iron.

She turned her head as she heard the guild doors open and saw Lucy walk in with Natsu, Nashi and her parents. She was going to tell Lucy about her doppelganger till a electricity appeared in front of Nashi revealing a blonde girl with sparks of electricity around her fist "hey pinky, we still haven't settled our match from yesterday"

Nashi simply smirked as she bumped her forehead against the other girls forehead "yeah right, I totally beat you yesterday blondie!"

Her fist became engulfed in flames they both pushed against each other"guess there's only one way to settle this pyro"

"Yeah I guess your right sparky" they both punched each other starting to fight as Lucy simply smiled at them "Play nice!"

Unfortunately they were already bouncing around the guild setting off small sparks of lightning and small flames of fire. Lucy simply smiled as she sat down at a booth with Natsu and her parents as her dad looked at her

"She definitely has lots of pent up energy, you know you were also a very active child Lucy. You were always awake before either one of us" Lucy blushed a bit out of embarrassment and nodded as everyone simply laughed

"Natsu I would like to have a word with you" Natsu looked up from the seat to see Erza standing there and lightly kissed Lucy's cheek before getting up and walked with Erza to a corner of the guild

"Something wrong Erza?" 

"Well this morning when I was arriving at the guild I saw someone looking into the guild through the window. When I took a closer look I found that the person looked exactly like me, she's currently downstairs in the dungeon and is asking to see Lucy specifically" she looked towards Natsu only to see him shaking in fear

"T-two Erzas? Oh no this is Edolas all over again!" she quickly covered his mouth glaring at him.

"Silence, I don't want Lucy knowing about this. Sense your her husband I figured it would be best if you went down there and talked to my doppelganger, to try and get some information. Maybe she'll talk to you" he nodded looking back towards his wife and headed down towards the dungeon

As he walked inside his eyes widened as he saw another Erza sitting down on the ground pulling on the restraints "whoa... You really do look just like her, even the other scarier Edolas Erza had some differences but you two look exactly alike"

He was confused as to what had happened, she was just... Staring at him. Erza couldn't believe her eyes as she looked at him, she could feel tears about to escape her eyes till she remembered and quickly shook her head "your not real... None of this is, your just part of her world"

"Hey who are you not calling real! Im as real as you or anyone else!" Erza couldn't help but smiled as she heard him, she had missed her childish friend. But there was that word... Missed. It just further proved that this was fake, that she had to convince Lucy to reject this world

"Natsu.." she looked up into his eyes "please... I swear that I do not intend to bring Lucy any harm, all I ask is that you let me speak with her"

Natsu stared at her for a bit till he crossed his arms sighing "Lucy's parents are visiting, we were gonna take Nashi to the aquarium and I dont want anything to ruin this day for Luce. So tell you what.. You tell me what you want to talk to her about and I might let you talk to her"

Erza groaned knowing he would never believe her but her eyes widened as she had realized what he had said "wait... Parents? You mean Lucy's parents?"

He nodded looking at her "yeah they're visiting, we were all gonna spend the day together"

Erza shook her head till she remembered this was Lucy's perfect world, that means it didn't have to be like theirs. Entire events could have changed or never even happened in the first place. This would make it even harder for her to convince Lucy to reject this world

"So are you gonna tell me or not? Lucy's gonna start getting suspicious if I'm gone too long" Erza shook her head looking at him

"I need to talk to Lucy, not anyone else" Natsu sighed and just walked back upstairs where he found his daughter finally all tired out and asleep on his wife's lap

"She gets her fighting spirit from you you know" Natsu nodded smiling as he sat down next to her and rubbed her back

"Hey she gets those 'Nashi Kicks' from you" they both nodded looking down at their daughter and got up heading to the aquarium as they planned

Back downstairs Erza was still trying to break out of the cuffs, she knew that there had to be some way to get out of this. She kept pulling on the cuffs till she heard whispering on the other side of the cell door "should we really be down here?"

"I already told you it's fine I just wanna see if its true" Erza saw red eyes look at her through the cell bars then saw a small boy with dark blue hair fall with a blonde girl falling on top of him followed by a small girl with blue hair and eyes

"Ow, I told you to stay back" the boy sat up glaring at the blonde as the bluenette girl just looked towards the ground as they argued. 

"Guys... Guys..." the bluenette tugged on their arms trying to get their attention as Erza looked at them. She simply smiled kindly at them trying to reassure them

"You dont need to worry, I can't hurt any of you. And even if I could you three are much too cute to hurt" the bluenette blushed a bit as the other two glared at her

"Yeah right, if thats true then why did aunt Erza lock you up here. And why do you look like her anyway?" asked the boy

"Its all just a misunderstanding, im actually a friend of aunt Lucy's. But come to think of it... Isn't it dangerous for the three of you to come down here alone. What would your parents say?" 

"Well if she isn't aunt Erza she definitely studied her well" said the blonde as she crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks

Erza laughed and tried to move closer but was kept back by the cuffs, she would have loved to interact with these kids some more. Maybe pinch their cheeks, smell their hair, playfully fight with them. But what she could do was find out who Lucy thought should be together. She leaned in close looking at the boy

"H-hey what are you looking at?" he backed up a bit looking at her

"Hmm, you definitely have Gajeel's eyes and judging from your hair your moms Levy isn't it" he glared at her a bit but nodded

"Yeah, my name's Cobalt Redfox. What about it? You got a problem with my parents or something?" he lifted up his arm turning it into an iron sword with a grin on his face, unfortunately his arm fell to the ground due to the weight

The bluennete walked up to him lightly tapping his shoulder "you know your not supposed to use sword, its too heavy for you"

"Yeah well... Why dont you go back upstairs, you didn't even wanna come down here" he groaned trying to lift up his now sword arm but sighed turning it back to normal

"You'll get stronger, you just have to have patience. Even I couldn't hold up a sword when I was young" she smiled at him and noticed a small smile on his face as he turned away

She looked towards the bluenette and smiled looking at her closely "you.. You definitely have Juvia's eyes but your hairs a bit darker than hers.. Your papa is Gray isn't it?" 

She nodded shily looking at her and bowed "M-my name is Aqua Fullbuster. It's very nice to meet you"

"What are you bowing for? There's a reason she's locked up here you know" the blonde glared at Erza 

"You definitely have an attitude dont you? Hmm... Blonde hair, is your name Nashi?" the blonde gasped glaring at her waving her arms in the air

"Im nothing like that pyro maniac! Im ten.. No! A hundred times better!" Erza couldn't help but laugh at her small outburst

"My apologies, if your not Lucy's child then I would have to say... Your father is Laxus, but who's your mother?" the blonde smiled at Erza and nodded

"My dad is the strongest wizard in the guild and my mom is..." she was cut off as they heard footsteps running down the stairs. They all looked towards the door to see Simon running towards them

"Your not supposed to be here! We could all get in serious trouble!" they all just scratched the back of their heads looking away as Erza smiled at him

"Your Simon right? Your a very responsible child aren't you?" he looked towards Erza but puffed his cheeks turning away

"Im not gonna talk to you as long as your pretending to be my mom, and you guys shouldn't talk to her either!" he glared at his friends as they just stood there

"She doesn't seem like a bad person... She hasn't even yelled at us" they all turned to see Aqua looking towards the ground. They were surprised by how she had spoken up and were even more surprised by what she did next

"Ice make key" they looked towards her palm as a key of ice slowly formed and she unlocked the door walking towards Erza 

"H-hey what are you doing!?" Simon yelled as he drew his sword preparing for a fight

"She isn't a mean lady, I say we let her go" she unlocked the cuffs letting Erza stand up and watched as Erza leaned in close smiling

"Thank you very much Aqua, but please. If anyone asks tell them that I escaped on my own, I wouldn't want any of you getting in trouble" she nodded but saw Simon walk up holding up his sword

"Your not going anywhere, your staying here till we get the answers we want" Erza looked at his stance and moved his arms and legs

"There, that should allow you to react a bit faster in a fight. And I know you won't allow to leave so thats why im asking you.. Will you please allow me to leave?" he glared up at her a bit but sighed putting his sword back

"I dont know who you are but I can tell your not a bad person" he smiled and felt her lightly pull his cheek

"Your so adorable, your gonna grow up to be a very handsome man just like your father" he blushed a bit but smiled at Erza and watced her walk out of the cell towards the back of the room. The four of them followed her wondering what she was about to do

"Now kids, heres something that might help you in the future but you must keep it a secret" they watched as she pushed one of the bricks and a door appeared

"A SECRET PASSAGE WAY!" yelled the four of the kids at the same time, Erza smiled at them one last time before leaving into the passage and the door closed again. She would have never suspected that she would gain help from the children of Fairy Tail, and much less her own son at that

Meanwhile, at the aquarium Nashi had finally woken up from her nap and was being swung by her parents. Lucy smiled as she saw her daughter laugh and smile as they walked past tons of fish. When they had arrived at the show they watched multiple tricks done by the fishes and even got splashed some. Nashi was watching the show while her parents and grandparents were both leaning against each other. Lucy on Natsu and Layla on Jude

"Hey Natsu remember that water park we went to while we were in Crocus? We should go there for Nashis birthday, and this time we'll see if Wendy can cast troia on you" he nodded smiling but started turning green at the memory of that water slide

Lucy sighed happily looking at her daughter while she leaned on her husband with her parents right behind her and yet something felt wrong... She whispered something into Natsu's ear and he nodded smiling wide and hugged her tightly

They had spent the rest of the day at the aquarium and even got some souvenirs to take come, for some reason Nashi even collected the water they had gotten splash by and put it in a bottle. "You know she collects stuff because of your huge job momento collection right?"

Natsu simply smiled and nodded looking at their daughter walking ahead of them "yeah but she actually organises it because of you"

They both smiled and laughed as they finally arrived home and started getting ready for bed. As usual Nashi fussed as they tried to get her to take a bath and Natsu would just let her whenever she gave him puppy eyes or as he liked to call 'Baby Dragon eyes'

Eventually they had all finally gotten cleaned up and in bed, Lucy was in bed with Natsu laying on his chest as they were about to go to sleep till she remembered she had left one of her books downstairs and got out of bed. She walked downstairs finding her book on the coffee table but felt a hand cover her mouth as someone grabbed her

"Lucy you need to listen to me carefully okay?" she pushed Erza away glaring at her and whisper yelled

"Erza! What are you doing here so late at night!? And why do you look so young?" Erza sighed shaking her head

"Lucy, this is all a dream. We're inside your perfect world right now, Warren was able to send me into your mind to help set you free" Lucy looked at her shocked then laughed lightly shaking her head

"Very funny Erza, now please go home. Its late and I feel like finishing this book tonight" 

"Lucy its true! Dont you remember the attack on the guild? You getting hit by that spell when you tried to stop them" Lucy shook her head looking confused

"Erza are you alright? What are you talking about?" she moved closer feeling Erza's forehead just in case she was sick or something

"Lucy dont you remember? A year ago the guild called Blood Hornet had one of its members kill Natsu. You were with him on that job, you came back with just his scarf" Lucy gulped shaking her head quickly

"No... No that never happened, he beat that monster. He beat it" Erza saw her getting nervous and knew she was finally getting through to her

"Natsu died Lucy... We've finally gained some clues about who caused it and were going to make them pay. But we can only do that with you" Lucy just shook her head more grabbing it with her hands

"No... We're all happy... We're all happy and we're a big family" she looked at Erza with pleading eyes just to see her shake her head placing her hands on Lucy's shoulders

"Im sorry... I would love for this world to be real Lucy but it isnt. Please... Come back with me" Lucy looked up at her with tears falling down her cheek. She wiped her face as everything around them started slowly dissapearing till she heard a voice

"Mama? Mama where are you going?" Lucy turned around to see her daughter standing there in her pajamas holding a small stuffed dragon plush. She crouched down to her as the room started dissapearing

"Mama has to go now... But she wants you to know that she loves you very much..." Nashi looked up at her as her lip trembled

"Y-your leaving? Where are you going?" Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat hugging her daughter tightly

"I love you so much, please promise mama that you'll be a good girl" Nashi looked at her with tears streaming down her cheeks as she shook her head begging Lucy to stay and Lucy held her tightly as she slowly faded away. Erza saw Lucy on her hands and knees crying as they stood there in nothingness

"Lucy... Im sorry, I would love for this world to be real but we cant leave you here. It isn't what Natsu would want... It isn't what the guild wants..." she watched as Lucy slowly stood up wiping her face and nodded

"Yeah... We're gonna take down the guild that caused all of this right?" Erza nodded smiling but she could still hear the sadness in her voice, not only had she lost Natsu twice now... But she had just lost her daughter. She looked at Lucy and a second later she was waking up to see the ceiling of the infirmary, she slowly sat up and looked around to see Lucy waking up as well with some of the guild members around them and smiled as she saw Happy hug Lucy with happy tears in his eyes

A good couple hours had passed since Lucy and Erza had awakened and everyone had decided to leave Lucy alone upstairs. She had still been depressed about losing her daughter that Erza had told the guild about, some even wanted to experience this world for themselves. They were all talking about what had happened but quickly went quiet as they saw Lucy walk down into the main hall

She went to the bar and quickly drank some of a beer and sighed "hey everyone listen up, I want to make a toast!"

Everyone watched as she held up a mug of beer looking at everyone "I wanna propose a toast to Natsu Dragneel, even though he's gone now he is still in our hearts! And that's why we have to make sure to take down Blood Hornets! Otherwise im pretty sure Natsu is gonna give us all heart burn"

She smiled as everyone nodded and cheered as they started another one of their celebration parties. Lucy smiled thinking about Natsu holding the scarf that was around her neck "I promise you Natsu, we'll take down these guys"

Everyone started partying away the night not knowing that someone was outside watching them with a smirk on his face. The clouds covering the moonlight kept his face hidden in the shadows but as the clouds moved and the moonlight moved down onto him it revealed his spiky pink hair and onix eyes. Natsu looked at them for a bit more before slowly walking off dissapearing in the distance


	11. Captured?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I just wanted to thank all of you for reading my story. I honestly never thought I would make this far but thanks to all of you I have so thank you all

It was a dark night in Magnolia but inside a small restaurant our blonde haired Celestial mage was sitting down at a table moving the ice in her drink aroud with her straw while the man sitting across from her kept rambling on about his money and his family's fortune and wealth. She honestly hated guys like this but she had promised Levy that she would start dating soon, even though she would much rather be focusing on her novel. Although she wouldn't mind having a boyfriend did Levy and Cana have to set him up with a guy that was so self centered. She was pretty sure that he hadn't even asked her for her name and just started talking about him, he also kept looking at her chest when he thought she wasn't looking. She sighed resting her head on her hand spinning the ice in her drink till she realized he was actually directly talking to her

"Hey, Im gonna go to the bathroom I'll be right back okay?" she nodded putting on a fake smile and breathed a sigh of relief as he walked away. It had been a month since all the commotion with her dream world and Blood Hornet but it was still on her mind.

They had very few leads on their whereabouts and it just frustrated her, she wanted to make sure these guys pay for everything they've done. Attacking the guild, locking her in a dream world, and worst of all what they did to Nat.... "Miss?"

She didn't have time to finish her thought as she saw a waiter standing there setting down the check "here's the check for your meal, your date said you would be paying"

She looked at him confused then towards the bathroom and back to him "um... I think you have the wrong table. My date is in the bathroom he'll be right back"

"It was the tall man with dark brown hair wearing a suit correct?" she nodded looking at him "he just left, he said that you would be paying for the meal"

He just looked at him in shock then opened up the check looking at the bill and her eyes widened at those many numbers, she had no idea what he ordered was so expensive!! She groaned letting her head fall onto the table before sitting up again paying for the meal. She walked out of the restaurant seeing that it was dark and started walking home, she still could not believe that guy! First he won't shut up about himself then he makes her pay for the meal!! Why would Cana even set her up with a guy like that? 

She sighed looking down at her dress and stopped in front of a glass mirror looking at her hair and face, not only did she not want to go on this date but she had also spent hours getting ready for it. She leaned her head against the glass looking at herself till she saw something. In the reflection of the mirror she saw a someone hiding in the alley across the street looking at her, she quickly got her keys ready which were inside her purse and grabbed onto Taurus's key just in case. 

She kept walking towards her house but kept looking back to check if she was being followed but didn't see anyone, unfortunately that didn't get rid of the feeling that she was being watched. She started walking faster till she heared a high pitched sound which forced her to cover her ears unfortunately that didnt help much as it kept getting louder and shattered the glass around her.

Luckily she managed not to get cut by any and groaned still recovering from the high pitched sound and looked up to someone standing on top of a building cackling. "Well im out for a walk and look what I find, a cute little fairy. I gotta say you have a very nice body"

Lucy cringed a bit looking up at him, why does she always get the perverts? "Who are you!?"

He simply cackled more clapping "well I guess you could call me someone trying to live in a world of sound"

She looked at him confused and saw him point his fist towards her as some type of sound waves flew out towards her with her barely having time to dodge. She saw the ground where she was standing dedtroyed and looked up to see him gone. She quickly got up looking around just in case he was still around, unfortunately she got hit by something that felt like a sledgehammer and fell into the water by the river.

The man walked closer looking into the water to see nothing and pouted walking away "geez, I thought these fairy guys would be stronger. I wanted a fight"

Meanwhile down the river Lucy popped her head out of the water grabbing onto the sidewalk pulling herself up gasping for air as she held her keys tightly. She gasped for air just laying there still hurt from whatever hit her and passed out on the street soaked. Up on the roofs of Magnolia the man was jumping on the roofs heading towards the edge of town till he saw something jump up from the ground punching him sending him to a wall 

He slowly get back up shaking his head hearing flames behind him and grinned standing up "looks like I do get a fight tonight after all"

"I warned you, and you didn't listen. I told you to leave them alone but all you want is to hurt people" he lite his fists on fire glaring at him as they both charged at each other

Meanwhile in another part of town Gray was heating up some noodles while Juvia was sitting at the table waiting, recently he had started doing all the house work, cooking, and even went on jobs for both of them. Juvia offered to help him but he knew better than to disobey Erza who had told him to give Juvia anything she wantes, he was just lucky that she was too shy to actually ask for anything she wants. 

He was still happy taking care of her even if she was hiding something from him, she had been acting weird lately and thats saying something. He brought two bowls of noodles to the table setting them down smiling at Juvia "food is served, eat up"

"Thank you very much" she smiled up at Gray starting to slowly eat the hot noodles as Gray sat across from her already half naked, she obviously didn't mind his stripping habit but it was a hassle sometimes to find his clothes again. 

"Hey Juvia, your alright right? You've acting weird and of somethings up I want you to know that you can trust me" he saw that she was a bit surprised by this but smiled wide nodding "yes of course Gray-sama, Juvia is perfectly fine"

Back in the mansion hidden inside the dark forest the small girl named Eirene was just sitting in her room brushing her dolls hair which she rarely got to do, this place wasn't exactly the type of place to let their soldiers play with dolls. She was even surprised she was still alive, the only reason she wasnt dead was because of her powerful magic that she hated. But where else would she go? They just found her wandering in a town one day and saw potential in her, she had no friends, no relatives, and especially not a mother and father after what had happened.

She shook her head not wanting to remember that terrible night anymore than she had to, she just wanted to live the rest of her life. She kept playing with her doll till she heared some noise outside her room and went to check it out, she ran down the hallway to see the green haired woman named Sylvia laughing at a man with short brown hair and bandages over his eyes and his clothes obviously burned up "oh man Rayin you look like you really got messed up, your telling me even with your mighty sound magic you couldn't beat him?"

He growled a bit moving closer to her clenching his fists "im here aren't I? Besides lets see how well you do against me then?"

Eirene saw small sound waves coming off of his fists and Sylvia pull back her cape grabbing her hammer "do you two really need to fight?"

They both ignored the small girl till a dark evil voice started coming from her "I say we let them fight, besides it would be fun to see someone screaming in pain"

They looked at her to see shadows rising up behind her as Eirene held the doll closer to her shaking her head as both of them sighed walking past her "I really hate when she does that"

She pouted a bit looking around the empty room and quietly walked back to her room trying to ignore the voice "well that was boring, you should get involved more. It wouldn't only make you strong but it would be fun" 

"Hurting people isnt fun... I dont even hurt them all of that is you and I keep telling you I dont want you to hurt people" she walked into her room looking into the mirror to see a dark reflection of her with pitch black eyes

"You know I miss the good old days when you would love for me to be around, we had fun back then" she shook her head looking at the reflection

"We used to have fun back then because you weren't so evil back then. Or at least... You acted good" the girl looked down ignoring the voice as she layed back in bed trying to relax

Back in Magnolia Lucy was waking up in an unknown bed with star shaped patterns on the sheets, she rubbed her eyes sitting up and saw books scattered around and her keys on the side table. She breathed a sigh of relief as she grabbed them and held them close to her chest glad that they were safe "Lu-chan your finally awake!"

Lucy looked towards the door to see Levy walking in with a happy smile on her face as she hugged her. She hugged her back happy that she was with a close friend "I was so worried me and.. I mean I found you laying unconscious on the street so I brought you home"

She nodded looking around and realized that this wasn't Levy's old room from Fairy Hills, it was bigger and had a different coat of paint on the walls. Lucy tried sitting up but groaned feeling some pain in her back "be careful, theres this bruise on your back. What did you get hit by and why were you in the water and what happened?"

By the time Levy was done she was out of breath and Lucy simply giggled "well, that date that you and Cana sent me on turned out terrible. The guy said he was going to the bathroom and just left, leaving me with the check"

Levy sighed hoping that the date would have gone well, she really wanted Lucy to find someome. "Ok so what happened next? How did you end up on the sidewalk soaking wet"

"Well while I was heading home I noticed someone following me but then the glass around me shattered and there was this high pitched nouse. I looked up and saw some dude standing on the building and he tried to attack me but I managed to dodge. Unfortunately I got hit by something hard sending me into the river, I managed to get away and I guess I ended up passing out. Speaking of which how did you carry me here all by yourself"

Levy was surprised by the story but was stuck trying to figure out a lie to tell Lucy, her and Gajeel had actually been walking by when they found her but they didn't want anyone finding out about them just yet "oh um... Well you know... I've been working out! Yeah I've been working out so I could get stronger"

She laughed nervously but was glad when Lucy simply nodded looking around "this is your new place right? I haven't gotten to see it yet you always had some type of excuse or something"

Levy nodded quickly worried that Lucy would eventually find her out and grabbed her hands "hey why dont we go to the guild? You know to tell everyone else about what happened"

Lucy nodded standing up and saw that she was in some sweats a bit short for her legs and a big shirt, probably something Levy slept in "okay but first can we stop by my place, I need a change of clothes and Happy is probably there wondering where I am"

She nodded helping her walk still hurting from the bruise and walked towards Lucy's house. When they finally got there they found Happy sleeping on a pillow obviously over sleeping and Lucy sighed grabbing some clothes walking into the bathroom. 

It had been a while since Levy had been in her house so she figured she might as well take a look around. The place did need a clean up after all, there papers scattered around and even some dead fish laying around. She started clearing the desk till she found a stack of papers stappled together and looked at the cover "A Fairy Family"

She turned the pages starting to read the book and saw that it was a story about Natsu and Lucy actually being together and even having a child together. Levy knew Lucy missed him but she didn't think she missed him that much, maybe sending her on that date was a bad idea

She turned the page to read more only to have it snatched away by Lucy who was now dressed in a tank top and shorts with her keys and whip on her belt "Levy-chan! Please tell me you didn't read this..."

"Oh um.. Well I was cleaning and well... Um.. Maybe a little" Lucy groaned putting in a drawer trying to hide her embarrassment as she scratched the top of Happy's head waking him up "Lu-chan how long have you been working on that? It has alot of pages"

Lucy sighed picking up a half awake Happy looking at Levy "for a while... I know its really weird but its just one of the things I do to manage. Besides its not like it'll ever come true anyway" 

Lucy walked past Levy heading towards the door but Levy knew that there was a hint of sadness in her voice as she said that last sentence, she followed Lucy out as they started walking towards the guild. When they got there they saw everyone going on with their daily routine but saw Erza and the master working on something on a table and when they got a closer look they saw a map on the table with a forest area circled "so this is the best lead we have at the moment?"

Erza nodded looking at Makarov "yes, before June died he said Nasia. We originally thought nothing of it but after doing a bit of research we found out that it was a small forest east of here. Its reasonable to believe that this might be the hideout of where Blood Hornet is hiding"

"Okay then, I want you to go there and see if there's anything there. This is a simple recon mission, do not engage understand. You may take a small team with you but make sure not to get caught"

"I'll go!" master and Erza both looked to see that Lucy was standing behind them "please master, let me go. I want to help take them down"

Makarov knew Lucy was a bit closer to this than anyone else but he knew she could turn her anger and sadness into power "okay then, Lucy and Happy will be accompanying you Erza. Take whoever else you think is necessary but be careful"

She nodded as Lucy and Happy smiled at each other knowing that they were strong enough to take them down, they were finally going to avenge Natsu. Unfortunately, they didn't know that at the moment Natsu was sitting in a dark cell trying to punch his way out, he kept trying to punch his way out and probably would have if it wasn't for the magic cuffs blocking his magic. He sighed till he saw the door open and saw Sylvia walk in "the master wants your presence"


	12. Travel Plan

Natsu was on the ground looking up at the green haired woman standing in the doorway of the cell that they had put him in, after fighting one of their guys he ended up in this stupid cell. He probably could have easily got out if it weren't for the stupid magic blocking cuffs on his hands, that fight with that sound guy also took alot out of him so that was also an issue. He sat on the ground looking up at the woman not moving till she walked closer grabbing him by the collar of his shirt dragging him out and into the halls of the mansion. He saw that the hallway was mostly lit by candles and had some paintings on the wall which seemed a bit dusty. He looked up at the woman as he started kicking his feet trying to put up a fight "dammit, let me go!"

He kept struggling like a small child against their mother as she simply dragged him across the floor sighing "I already told you, the master wants to see you"

"Yeah well I dont wanna see him! Let me go!" he put up even more a struggle trying to get out of her grip but only received a punch to the head "stop acting so childish"

She sighed, clearly annoyed by the fact that she was the one forced to transport him... Even if it was only across the mansion "I really hope you dont act like this in front of the master, would hate to see what he does to you"

He simply groaned still affected from that punch he received but shook his head recollecting his thoughts, he saw her not paying much attention as she dragged him along and watched his surroundings. He waited carefully till they passed a table with a vase on it. 

He smirked waiting till he was right next to it and kicked it knocking over the vase which landed right between his feet, he picked it up and launched at her hitting her in the head. He quickly jumped up making a run for it till he got hit by something in the back knocking the air out of him and heared footsteps coming closer till he received a kick to the face "you brat! Even if you got out what then? You can't use magic and those cuffs are practically indestructible" 

He saw her pick up a hammer that was on his back, obviously what took him down and hooked it back to her waist. She grabbed his collar dragging him to a dark room and threw him in front of an altar "as you asked master, I brought him to you"

"Thank you Sylvia, you may leave" Natsu groaned sitting up to see a man sitting on a throne like chair behind the alter with a golden staff in his hand with some type of bird at the end of it. He looked into the mans eyes which were a normal dark gray shade but something was just off about them 

"It looks like Sylvia was forced to use some physical force with you, then again that was to be expected of you after all. Now... What to do with you?" Natsu simply growled up at him as he stood up walking closer looking down at Natsu

"Why dont you let me out of these and lets settle this with our fists" the man smirked taking the cuffs off of him and saw Natsu lunge at him with his fists on fire but before Natsu could even realize what had happened he received a hit to the face sending him back into the wall of the room 

He groaned as he stood up hurt from the hit and the impact from the wall and looked towards him laughing "I must admit, this is more fun than talking it out. Also seems to get through that thick head of yours much better"

Back in Magnolia, Erza was standing in the back of the guild with Lucy, Happy, Gajeel, Lily, Wendy, Carla, and Gray. "Okay so the plan is simple, we will head to Nasia Forest and search for Blood Hornets hideout. But this is a simple recon mission, if we encounter the enemy we do not engage them understand?"

Everyone nodded looking down at the map on the table as she started listing off possible locations the hideout could be, everyone was focused except for Lucy. She was currently trying to figure it out, was Natsu alive or dead? Even though she had accepted that he was gone there was still what June had told her 'Your little buddy... He's alive. And all you gotta do to see him is let me go'

She didn't know if he was simply lying in order to get free or if that was the truth, either way... She was gonna make sure that they took down this guild no matter what, even if it killed her. "Lucy are you listening?"

Her head shot up to see Erza and the rest of them looking at her "o-oh yeah, just thinking about something. So we're leaving tomorrow right?"

Erza nodded rolling up the map looking at them "tomorrow afternoon, it takes a whole days travel so prepare tents. The night will also help us move around undetected easier if this is really where they are" 

Everyone nodded walking back into the guild except for Lucy who was heading straight home with Happy in her arms to prepare packing. Happy was chewing on a fish just enjoying being carried and looked up at Lucy "Lucy are you alright? You seem weirder than usual lately"

She glared at the exceed a bit for the insult but sighed nodding "yes Happy im fine, just alot to think about lately is all"

He nodded going back to chewing his fish, he wasn't sure if she was telling the truth but he knew that she would be fine, he was with her after all. They had other small conversations about random things on the walk home which made time pass by fast. When they had finally arrived home Lucy set Happy on bed looking in the closet for her sleeping bag "come on where is it?"

She reached far back feeling it and smilec triumphantly as she pulled it out but her eyes widened a bit as she saw it, a red sleeping bad strapped into a big green backpack. It was Natsu's... She had forgotten where she had put it but she wouldn't forget the last time she saw it

*Flashback* 

Lucy had just gotten dressed and was on her way to the guild, after abruptly being woken up by her landlady and waking up with Natsu and Happy in her bed she knew she needed to pay her rent. One, she would get kicked out for not paying and two, Natsu wouldn't be able to sneak in and sleep with he... Her eyes widened at what she had just thought and quickly shook her head "what is wrong with me? First im considering moving in with him then im happy he sneaks into my bed and sleeps with me?"

She groaned walking a bit faster rubbing her head "maybe im just really tired, theres no way im actually having these thoughts. I mean he keeps me warm at night and he.. No! Bad Lucy!" 

She shook her head like crazy hoping to get rid of the thoughts and arrived at the guild after a bit, and like she thought. Natsu was fighting with Gray and half the guild instead of finding a job for them but... Something was off. It was as if she was seeing him in a light, that spiky pink hair, those strong arms, that fit body. She was way too focused on those muscles that somehow she hasn't notice Happy flying in front of her "Luuuuucy! Are you listening?"

She quickly shook her head with some pink across her cheeks from embarrassment "o-oh hi Happy, what's up?"

"We found a job! And it pays alot, look at all those zeros!" Lucy leaned in looking at the poster Happy was holding to see a cave with a small description of the job

"Help, monster hiding in the cave outside of town continues to terrorize my vilage. Willing to pay... 300,000 jewel!? That's crazy!" Lucy was amazed by how much it was paying but also a bit worried by that, a high paying job like this usually isnt easy

"Hey Natsu! Get over here!" Natsu looked at the celestial mage as he and everyone else finally calmed down from their fight and walked over "whats up Lucy?"

"Are you and Happy sure about this job? You know that these monster jobs can be dangerous" she looked up into his eyes with a slightly worried look but saw him smirk punching his fist into his open palm

"Yeah im sure! Besides I've been wanting a good fight lately, and its not like I can't beat up some simple monster. Right Happy" the exceed smiled jumping into the air "aye sir!"

Lucy sighed but knew he was probably right, somehow he always managed to win and come out without serious injury. "Okay, are you all packed? I need this rent money as soon as possible"

He nodded running across the guild then ran back with a smile on his face as he held up his backpack "yep! Lets go, im all fired up!"

She sighed nodding as she followed him out of the guild, Lucy honestly couldn't figure out why Natsu loved these dangerous jobs. Well.. She actually could, he's an impulsive hot head who will charge into danger head first. They continued to walk to the train station till they hesrd the whistle blow and Natsu started turning green "um.. I think I forgot something at the guild"

He was about to run off till Lucy grabbed him by his scarf pulling him bavk "oh no way! We are getting on this train, I am not Walking two whole days just so we can fight some huge monster"

He pouted as Happy giggled flying over them as Lucy was forced to continue dragging him along like a child till they were finally on the train which made him calm down, or more specifically... Lose the ability to walk. Lucy set him down on the seat seating across from him with Happy on her lap as the train started moving.

It had been two hours and there wad still a good while till they arrived, it wasn't so bad except for Natsu's constant whinning and groaning. "Dont worry Natsu were almost there, and look at the bright side. You haven't thrown up once this entire trip"

"I think im gonna die..." he groaned as Lucy just sighed looking out the window. She watched them pass by the trees and small houses along the way but what caught her attention was a man in a hood walking with a bow in his left hand. She looked at him as their eyes made contact for a split second before passing him, she didn't know what it was but that dude sent shivers down her spine. Well at least she would never have to see him again

By the time they arrived Happy and Lucy were forced to pull Natsu out of the train sense his entire body was limp. Luckily the second the got off he was kissing the ground with a bright smile on his face .unfortunately people were staring at them. "Come on Natsu lets go meet the client"

He looked back up at her and nodded standing up as they walked with Happy on top of Natsu's head. Lucy just hoped they would be able to take care of this soon, the sooner she was able to get back to her warm shower the better. I mean... What could go wrong?

*end of flashback*

Lucy quickly shook her head looking at the backpack and quickly threw it back into the closet finding her pink suitcase and quickly shut the door starting to pack her clothes. She hoped this would be easy and simple, she definitely needed something easy and simple in her life right now.

In another part of town Gray was packing his bag as Juvia leaned againt the door frame looking at him eating some pickles, he didn't know why but she had recently been having weird cravings. "Gray-sama will be careful on this mission correct? Juvia doesn't want him to get hurt"

"Yeah Juvia I'll be careful, we're just gonna go make sure this is actually where these guys are hiding. I'll be back in no time, promise" she nodded but walked closer lightly hugging his arm 

"Dont worry Juvia, if anything bad happens we'll be able to handle it" she nodded and smiled as Gray leaned down kissing her, she honestly could not get enough of those kisses

He slowly pulled away smiling and picked up his bag but as he was about to walk out he walked back and took off his necklace putting it around her neck "keep this safe for me okay?"

Juvia was a bit surprised sense she had never seen him without it but nodded smiling wide "Juvia will protect it with her life"

He laughed lightly at how serious she took things sometimes but that was one of the things he loved about her. He kissed her one last time before waving and walking out the door. It took him some time but he arrived at the meetup point that Erza had said and saw everyone waiting for him.

"Now that Gray has finally arrived we can leave, sense no trains go through or near Nasia forest we'll have to walk there." Erza stated looking at everyone 

They started walking on the dirt road which led to the forest, they all knew this would take a while, especially walking. Each of them had their own thing on their mind as they walked but one reoccurring thing kept popping into everyone's heads 'if this was really where they were located this would lead to a fight'. Luckily, they were all prepared for a fight, unfortunately they had no idea what was waiting for them when they arrived


	13. Reunion

The only sound arround any of them was the noise of a crackling fire, it was burning multiple pieces of wood giving the wizards around it warmth and light. They had been walking for hours and were a bit exhausted, specifically the small Dragon Slayer and Celestial mage. Lucy and Wendy were relieved when they had finally gotten a break from all the walking. The group of wizards had decided to set up camp for the night sense it was turning dark and started a fire, Lucy, Wendy and the exceeds were all sitting by the fire enjoying the warmth while the rest of the group were off in the woods each taking care of their own business. The only light source beside the fire was the full moon that was above them which was beautiful yet at the same time a bit creepy. It would take them nearly a whole other day to reach the forest they were heading to and even longer to search it for the guild, then they would just have to walk all the way back home to come up with some sort of attack plan. Lucy did want to take these guys down but at the same time she hated walking everywhere, sense Natsu wasnt around they were able to take trains and carriages to iobs more often but it did mean that they didn't walk as much.

Lucy and Wendy simply sat around the warm fire while back out in the forest, Erza was standing by a cliff looking out into the landscape. She was sitting down calmly looking out till she heard something in the bushes behind her and quickly stood up turning around to see someone standing there in a dark blue hood "who are you?"

"It hasn't been that long Erza, im a bit disappointed that you dont recognize me" he smiled pulling off the hood revealing blue hair with a red tattoo over his right eye

Erza looked at him a bit surprised and nervously brushed her back worried that she was looking a bit messy "J-Jellal? what are you doing here? Where's Meredy and the Oracion Seis?"

He smiled walking closer and looked out at the landscape behind her "they're just a bit to the south, we're currently set up in an old town near here"

She nodded looking back out at the landscape as she stood next to him and looked up at him "that still doesn't answer my question, why are you here?"

"I could be asking you the same thing you know, your quite the distance from Magnolia. As for me.. I sensed Zeref's presence in the east. Were currently heading there till I saw you and decided to say hello" Jellal smiled a bit awkwardly knowing that wasnt the reason.

He liked talking to Erza but he was also nervous about it as well, he was actually forced to talk with her. Cobra had heared her and the rest of the wizards a while ago and after alot of arguing with Meredy and even Angel he decided to just make them happy and come talk with her. "That reminds me, what are you doing here?"

Erza sighed lightly as she crossed her arms under her chest looking up at the moon "we finally have a lead on the guild that was responsible for Natsu's death, we're currently heading to a possible location for the hideout but I just needed some time alone"

He nodded looking at her and moved closer looking into her eyes "How have you been holding up about that anyway? I know you and Natsu were very close and even when you asked me for help a year ago I started wondering if you alright"

She weakly smiled up at him but ended up laying her head against his chest as she clenched her eyes hugging him "I-I miss him Jellal... I only wish I would have been there with him and Lucy... maybe I could have done something. Maybe Natsu would still be here"

A single tear was falling down Erza's cheek before she felt strong arms embrace her holding her close "Dont blame yourself Erza, there's nothing you could have done. All you can do now is be strong, for your friends and for Natsu. If he was here he wouldn't want you crying, he would want you to be smiling and moving forward with your life"

Jellal smiled remembering something similar Natsu had told him about not letting yourself be controlled by ghosts and especially remembered how much he hated seeing Erza cry. Jellal knew he couldn't atone for all his sins but at least he could fix this one by helping Erza. They stood there for some time just enjoying being close to each other and sat down talking about what each of them has been up to. Eventually it was getting late and Erza knew she had to get back to camp but before she said goodbye she looked Jellal sternly in the eyes "Jellal, I need to ask a favor of you. Please stay out of this one, I promise I will inform you all about this once its over so please let me and the guild handle this"

He looked at her quite surprised but looked down smiling and nodded "okay Erza, I will. But you must promise me you'll come back safe from this"

She smiled back nodding and each of them got up heading their separate ways but before they got too far Erza looked back at Jellal "wait Jellal! I still have something I need to ask you"

He looked back at her and nodded with a gentle smile "of course Erza anything"

"I have been wondering this for a while... what's your fiancée's name?" she asked bluntly looking him dead in the eye

Jellal was honestly at a lost for words, after the incident at the beach he had hoped that this subject would never come up again. Unfortunately he didn't have a plan if it did, so what would a man in his situation do?... "o-oh no I think I hear Cobra calling me! I'm so sorry Erza another time!"... he would run

She laughe lightly shaking her head and looked up at the stars smiling "You've always been such a bad liar"

She walked back to camp to find most of the group already in their own sleeping bags asleep with only Gray awake poking at the fire with a stick. She walked over sitting down next to and looked at him "You have something on your mind dont you, you have that look in your eyes"

He sighed lightly not wanting to talk about it but knew it was best just to give Erza what she wants otherwise she would just beat it out of you. "I'm thinking about Natsu... Lucy has so much hope that somehow, even after a year he's still alive being held by this guild. I'm trying to believe it but I just cant, Natsu may be an idiot but he's strong. He would have escaped or at least gotten a message to us somehow, I really do wanna believe it but look at the stack of evidence against it."

She nodded looking at the small fire in front of them sighing just like Gray did "I know how you feel, deep down I hope we find him there as well. I thought I was at peace with this but obviously im not, none of us are, especially Lucy."

They both sat there in silence till Erza stood up patting Gray's back a bit hard knocking the air out of him "well I think that's enough sad talk for tonight, now come on. We better get some rest as well, we still have quite a distance to walk."

He nodded at her putting out the fire as he got up and got inside his sleeping bag slowly falling asleep. Menawhile in another camp site to the South a fire was still bright with several people sitting around it talking with each other. They heard something in the bushes behind them only to see their friend Jellal. Meredy and Angel got up walking over smiling at him "So Jellal, how did it go with Erza? Or was Cobra wrong about what he heard"

There was an annoyed scoff in the direction of where Cobra was as Jellal simply smiled looking at the two girls "It went fine, we caught up and talked a little but unfortunately we have to head back in the morning. Turns out the trail was wrong and we've been heading in the wrong direction"

They looked at him surprised but nodded as he was the leader of the group and after a bit more of chatting between themselves they were all heading to bed. Jellal laid down in his makeshift bed yawning lightly till he heard something behind him and quickly sat to see Cobra "what do you want Cobra? It's late"

"Nothing Jellal just wanted to make sure that you were alright, that must have seriously hurt"

Jellal looked at him confused and sat up more "what are you talking about Cobra? Nothing happened"

"Yeah right, I hear everything and what I heard earlier was a man getting whipped by his lady friend"

He growled lightly standing up walking closer glaring at him "Go to sleep Cobra"

He simply smirked at him as poison started forming around his fist "make me"

After that Meredy woke up to a loud boom and saw the leader and Dragon Slayer of the group fighting each other. She simply sighed rolling on her side groaning lightly "Not again... keep it down you two, fight in the morning" sadly what she said was ignored as they continued fighting

The next day the Fairy Tail wizards were all smiling as they had reached their destination after alot of walking. They were all carefully walking around checking for any sort of booby trap making sure to keep their presence hidden, the wizards were crawling through bushes and the exceeds flying at high altitude getting a bird's eye view of the forest. Carla sighed looking around seeing nothing but trees for miles "how could a guild possibly be hidden in a forest, the trees here arent that high so it cant be covered"

Pantherlily nodded flying closer keeping an eye out "maybe underground perhaps? It would be a good hiding spot"

"Or maybe it's just invisible!" Happy smiled suggesting his idea only to have it immediately turned down. He flew a bit faster determined to spot it worst and ended up ahead of the group but as Lily amd Carla watched him from behind their eyes widened as they saw him just disappear in mid air

"Happy! Happy where are you!?" Carla cried out worried till she saw his head reappear in mid air with no worry on his face

"what? You dont have to yell, and look what I found!" He dissapeared again and as they flew closer they saw the forest change from a healthy green forest to a dark desolate land with dead trees and in the middle an old mansion "hmm... it must be some kind of cloaking magic that keeps them hidden from the rest of the forest unable to be seen from the other side. Thats why it looked like Happy had just dissapeared"

The exceeds all flew back down to the rest of them informing of them of the discovery and they all carefully snuck closer staying unseen "okay, remember everyone. This is simply a recon mission, we examine the area then we get out"

They all nodded as Erza gave them orders but Lucy's eyes were locked on that mansion, if Natsu was going to be held up anywhere it would be there. They all carefully split up walking around the mansion examining the inside but as Gajeel was looking through a window his eyes widened as he quickly jumped back avoiding a hammer as the green haired woman they had told him about slammed a hammer into the ground "oh my, you heard me coming? Thats unusual, my victims only hear me if I want them to"

"Gi-hi well I dont exactly have normal hearing, dragon slayers got the best hearing around" He put his arm to his side transforming it into a sword as Lily changed into his battle form pulling out his sword "you know, its very rude to fight two on one. Especially against a woman"

"Well I was never really the gentleman type" He saw her quickly move towards him swinging her hammer hitting the wall but as he was grinning he got hit in the face by something sending into the ground. He quickly got up to see a pillar of bricks stretching out from the wall she had hit with a smirk on her face "oops, did that hurt? Dont worry I'll make sure all the pain goes away, as soon as I kill you"

She ran towards Gajeel but he quickly got his sword only to have her dodge not only his but Lily's attack from behind as well. In another part of the forest Carla was holding Wendy as she flew dodging multiple sound blasts from a man on the ground with a blindfold over his eyes "ooh your pretty nimble ! But I'll hit you eventually!"

Wendy fought back with multiple wind attacks but for someone with his eyes covered he was able to dodge attacks. "Carla, we need to get closer!"

Against her better judgement Carla nodded flying fast aiming straight for him only to have him dodge grinning as he looked at her until... "Sky dragon's roar!"

Wendy hit him point blank as they were beside him quickly flying back up to see some of the forest destroyed but as some dust cleared their eyes widened to see him standing in the exact spot without a scratch on him with a sort of barrier around him as he looked around like he couldn't see her "gotta admit! That was good! Never saw it coming, well to be fair I cant really see anything so eh. Now... my turn..."

The barrier dissapeared as he held fists up grinning sending a huge sound wave in the air hitting them causing them to lose balance giving him enough time to appear beside them blasting them into the ground. Meanwhile, inside the guild Natsu jumped up off the ground awakened by the slight shaking and saw that he was still on the ground tied up in front of the master still bruised and beaten. He got up om his feet jumping to his feet seeing fighting, he smiled immediately trying to break out of the restraints only to get hit on the head by a golden staff sending him into the ground "There is no chance im letting you fight, however..."

He tapped his staff on the ground and heard footsteps before a young man in black pants, a red hoodie, and a hat on his head backwards appeared in front of him "you called master?"

He nodded looking back outside "we appear to have some uninvited guests, take care of them"

The young man immediatly smiled wide nodding and ran outside with a gust of wind behind him as the master looked down at Natsu. "Too bad your not out there fighting with them"

Gray was running as fast as he could to where the sound of fighting was coming to help till he heard footsteps behind him but as soon as he turned around he received a punch to the face sending him into the ground. He groaned getting up and saw some dude in a red hoodie smirking at him "ooh you couldn't even see me could you!"

He immediately got a punch only to see him dissapear to hear him behind him "boo"

He received a punch to the back sending him flying till he managed to gain his footing and quickly looked around "I got you now..."

As soon as he heard footsteps he put his hands together growling "Ice make floor!"

The floor around him immediately turned to ice but his eyes widened as he saw it turn into steam receiving an uppercut but even without feeling a hit he was quickly slammed back into the ground only to see the dude standing right there "Dude you really suck, I was hoping this would be fun"

Gray clenched his fists immediately getting at him with the air around them getting cold. In another section Lucy was running quickly with Happy beside her both getting tackled by Erza as multiple black spears came right abover their heads. "Thanks Erza, Happy are you alright?"

She looked down to see Happy with his eyes spinning "Luuucy? Why are there three of you?"

She took this as a really bad signal and held him close "It's okay Happy, just get some rest. Everything is gonna be fine"

He nodded closing his eyes as Lucy pulled out her Sagittarius key transforming into her stardress as Erza requiped a sword with both of them looking at the small girl behind them with some type of black magic covering her creating multiple sharp weapons "Lucy, I'll attack close trying to get you an opening. When you do hit her with everything you have understood?"

Lucy reluctantly nodded not wanting to hurt the girl but held up her bow as Erza was about to run but before she could Gajeel and a small Lilly got slammed though the wall with Carla and Wendy crashing into the ground as Gray tumbled to them quickly getting up "You guys having as much trouble with your guys as I am with mine?"

They nodded tiredly as Erza looked at each of them and clenched her fists tightly "Everyone we're retreating! We need to escape!"

They each looked at her surprised but with each of their enemies closing in on them they knew this wasnt a fight they could win. Lucy nodded looking at them aiming her arrow at the ground shooting it causing it to scatter causing a huge blast of smoke, with that they ran as fast as they could but as they were running Lucy's eyes widened. As they passed a window she saw him... she saw Natsu on the ground tied up and beaten and even though it was just a few seconds it felt much longer. As if time had slowed down just for her to see her best friend again. Without realizing it she had tripped but was caught by Gajeel throwing her over his shoulder running. "This is no time to be daydreaming bunny girl!"

"W-wait! Put me down! Put me down Gajeel! I saw him!" She hit his back repeatedly trying to get down as he just ignored her as she looked back at the mansion with sad eyes "NATSU! I PROMISE I'LL COME BACK!"


	14. Challenge

Everyone was running as quickly as they could only looking back every couple of minutes making sure that no on was following them. Lucy was still on Gajeel's shoulder sense he hadn't put her down because honestly, after stopping for a few seconds back at the mansion he didn't want her stopping again. They had gotten past the cloaking spell which had disguised the forest. The exceeds were flying above them making sure no one was following and surprisingly none of them had even tried to follow them. When they were sure that they had gotten enough distance from the mansion they stopped taking a rest taking one last look around before Gajeel set Lucy down on her feet

"okay I think we're far enough n..." Gajeel was unfortunately cut off as a small fist punched him in the face which was immediately followed by a scream. Unfortunately, it was Gajeel who had screamed

"Ow ow ow ow! That really hurt!" Lucy was jumping up and down holding her now bruised fist from punching Gajeel "stupid metal face..."

Gajeel looked at her confused and even though the punch hadn't affected him at all it didn't mean it didn't bother him "what the hell was that for bunny girl?!"

He walked closer to Lucy till Gray stepped between them as Lucy glared up at the metal man "Didn't you hear me back there!? What I said!"

"Oh im so sorry that I didn't hear you yelling while we were getting our ass handed to us! why the hell did you stop anyway!?" Gajeel growled at her as Gray pushed him back keeping him away from Lucy as she walked closer

"You wanna know what I saw! What I saw was Natsu! He was there!" as soon as she said that everyone had frozen in place looking at her amazed, especially Happy. The small exceed was shocked to hear that his best friend was still alive but he was thrilled even more to know that he was still alive

"A-are you serious Lucy? Natsu was back there?" She smiled at him nodding and hugged him tightly before turning around looking in the direction of the mansion

"Now, im going to head back there and save him. Which of you are coming with me and Happy?" she looked at them still a bit surprised from knowing that Natsu was still alive but was shocked as none of them stepped forward to offer their assistance

"Lucy, believe me if Natsu is really back there I would put my life on the line to rescue him but we were outmatched. Even if we did go back then what? We can't beat them, at least not right now. We'll go to the guild and come up with a plan then come back okay?" Erza placed her hand on Lucy's shoulder as Lucy and Happy looked down

"What if he's not there when we come back...?" Erza could hear the fear in Lucy's voice and looked at her with a smile

"He will be, I promise you. But for right now we need to go back, as soon as we have a plan we'll come back" Lucy stayed silent for a bit before nodding and started walking away from the direction of the mansion "okay..."

Everyone had started walking along with the Celestial and Requip mage heading back to Magnolia. Meanwhile, back at the dark mansion everyone was sitting in the main hall patiently till their master walked in looking at them "I assume that you all handled the intruders?"

They all nodded except for the young man in the red hoodie who walked towards the tall man with a golden staff "yes master but... why did you ask us to let them go? We could have easily taken them out permanently"

Their master looked at him before placing his hand on the younger mans shoulder "Lucas, this is all like a strategy game. Instead of focusing on what is in front of you you must focus on what is ten feet ahead of you. That is why I have already come up with a plan to destroy them"

"Does it include the firehead?" Sylvia looked up at their master while Natsu was still unconscious inside the cells again.

"Yes it does, we're going to send them a message luring them back here. We'll split them up and destroy them" Everyone nodded except for Eirene who was sitting in the corner hugging her legs talking to herself

"I don't want to hurt anyone..." She whispered to herself as the dark voice inside of her talked back "Who said you were in charge?"

She whimpered slightly slightly hugging her legs tighter curling up into a ball as sylvia walked over looking down at the small child "hey, you're not gonna break down on us right? I've noticed you talking to yourself more lately"

She shook her head which was against her legs to hide her scared face but jumped up scared as a hammer landed on the ground next to her shattering the floor "I dont exactly understand this whole thing you got going on with two voices but let me make it clear that you need to control that power. Because if you don't, its gonna eat. you. up."

She glared at the girl before picking up her hammer walking off as Eirene ran to her room locking the door laying in bed crying into her pillow shaking as she felt the dark magic surround her talking to her "Eat you up huh? How dare she talk to you like that, you know what we should do right? Destroy her, destroy everyone, destroy anyone that gets in our way"

She shook her head crying more into her pillow whimpering as she felt the dark magic completely surround her speaking in an ominous voice"Or maybe, I'll just destroy you"

She cried more till she screamed sending the magic into scattered pieces across the room desyroying a few things. She sat up looking around the room at tge destroyed objects and hugged her pillow mumbling into it "Im sorry momma, papa... it's all my fault... everything's my fault..."

Back at Magnolia the group has just arrived as the sun was setting but with their defeated spirits they all just walked their seperate ways without saying a word to each other. Lucy headed back to her apartment with the blue exceed resting on her head looking back as everyone else went their own way. "Hey Happy... once this is all over do you want to go in vacation? Just get away from Magnolia for a while, maybe see some new sights?"

He looked down at her a bit worried as he sprouted his wings flying in front of her "We're coming back though? Right?"

She immediatly nodded looking at the small cat, even though she did want to get away from these memories of Natsu she would never want to leave Fairy Tail. It was her family after all, and also his "Of course Happy, we'll just travel a bit is all. We'll be back here before you know it"

He smiled at her nodding as he flew into her chest hugging her tightly, even though he had lost Natsu Lucy was always there for him. And because of her now he knew that his best friend was still alive. They walked to their apartment while at the guild Erza had walked into Makarov's office explaining what happened "After we were attacked we retreated sense we were outmatched but as we were leaving..."

Makarov noticed the hesitation in her voice and saw her looking down at the floor clenching her fist "what is it Erza? What happened?"

"As we were leaving Lucy says she saw... she saw Natsu" Makarov's eyes widened as he heard this revelation and looked at her slightly stunned

"Is she certain it was him? Was he alright? Did anyone else see him?" He asked quickly worried about one of his children that he thought he had lost but unfortunately Erza shook her head

"Lucy was the only one that saw him, we were under attack when she says she saw him. We would have gone back to save him but the odds were not in our favor" She looked down saddened that they weren't able to save him but was snapped out of it as the edge of the desk that Makarov was gripping was snapped off.

She saw anger in his eyes as he looked at her with broken pieces of wood between his fingers "Don't worry Erza, we will rescue Natsu. And make them pay for what they did"

She nodded slightly scared, even though he was a kind man you did not want to anger Makarov. Herself along with a few other guildmates had seen him when he was truly angered "So what's the plan master? They know that we know where their base is, it's only a matter of time before they decide to act"

He nodded as he scratched his beard thinking back on all the informationt hey had gathered so far. "I'll need some time to think of a plan, in the meantime keep this from the rest of the guild. We dont need anyone else running over to them trying to take them on, once we have a plan we'll inform the guild"

Erza knew how most of the guild would act agreed, but she still felt guilty for having to keep the fact that Natsu was still alive from them. "If you say so master, but please allow me to take charge in the upcoming fight. I should be able to lead the charge against the dark guild, I memorized the layout of the outside of the mansion"

Makarov nodded wanting at least one s-class wizard on the attack, unfortunately the rest of the s-class wizards were currently busy. He pulled out a large sheet of paper maping out the mansion with Erzas details and while they were doing this Gray unlocked the door to his house with his shirt off and on the ground as he unlocked the door but as he walked in he heard a vomitting sound coming from the bathroom. He walked towards the bathroom in a hurry obviously worried but as he saw the door it was immediatly slammed shut causing him to run into it. He groaned rubbing his nose as he sat up "ugh... what the hell?..."

"G-Gray-Sama is that you? Im so sorry but Juvia isn't appropriate right now.." She said nervously as Gray stood up trying to turn the doorknob

"Juvia open the door, I know something is up with you. Either open the door or I'm gonna bre.." He was cut off by the sound of vomitting and immediately kicked open the door open but was surprised to see Juvia on her knees with her head in the toilet. He looked at her worried and knelt down next to her holding her hair back and rubbed her back. After a few minutes of off and on vomitting she was finally alright with both of them now sitting on the couch with her drinking some water avoiding eye contact with the ice mage

"Okay..." Juvia shily looked over at her boyfriend still sipping on the glass of water just so that she wouldn't be able to talk "Just tell me whats going on, you've been acting weird for the past few weeks. Is something wrong? Did you not want to move in?"

She set the glass down quickly shaking her head swallowing the water that was in her mouth "O-Of course not! Juvia loves living with Gray-sama and nothing is wrong. Juvia... has just been keeping a little secret..."

"Secret? Juvia you know you can tell me anything, you practically already do. Trust me, no matter what it is im here for you. You can tell me" He grabbed her hand smiling at her as she bit her lip softly contemplating whether or not to tell him but took a deep breath before leaning in and whispered in his ear "Juvia..."

Meanwhile back at the guild everyone was sitting around enjoying themselves not knowing what was going on with Natsu except for Lucy who was sipping on a milkshake watching Happy talk with Carla offering her yet another fish. She always wondered where he got all the extra fish considering he ate most of them but she was taken out of thought when the guild doors opened revealing a tall man in a royalty like robe with a thick beard on his face and his hair combed back. He was walking slowly examining the guild hall but what caught everyones attention was his golden staff with seemed to a have a golden bird on the end of it "Hmm... so this is the Fairy Tail he talks about so much"

He looked at the multiple guild members till his eyes landed on Lucy and he walked closer smiling "You, you're part of that little group that attacked my guild and lost"

Lucy looked at him confused before her eyes widened in realization and she quickly grabbed her celestial whip creating a stream of blue star light and attacked him. Sadly it just went straight through him as she saw it was a magical holigram "W-what?"

"Simple minded girl, im not here to attack your guild. Where is your master?" He looked at Lucy like a dumb child till everyone felt a strong pressure of magic and looked towards the second floor balcony where Makarov was standing

"Im right here, what do you want with me?" He glared at the man knowing who he was from deductive reasoning

"Very simple, I'm sure you all know that I currently have a Natsu Dragneel being held prisoner. I would like to offer a chance for you all to win him back. A challenge if you will"


	15. Fun Begins

The guild was in complete silence due to the recent intrusion by the man with a golden staff entering the guild hall, it wasn't his look or the weapon he held which caused silence between the guild members. It was what he said when he entered, he had Natsu held prisoner at his guild. Everyone in the guild had assumed he had perished on the mission he took with Lucy and Happy a little under a year ago. But the true revelation of all of this was that Makarov had known about this and he had kept it from the guild, from his family.

Everyone stared at the man as Makarov jumped down from the second floor, landing in front of him. Time seemed to almost stand still as the two old men looked at each other till Makarov finally spoke "so it's true... Natsu is alive and well, well tell me... whats keeping me from marching over there and destroying that guild of yours?"

The much taller man started to lean down trying to match the height of the much shorter man "Alive and well? When did I ever say that?"

He stood straight up and took a step back as a magic holigram of a beat up, bruised, and tied up Natsu on the ground unconscious. Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at the holigram in shock at the state that he was in "As you can see I can and will hurt this boy. So, are you willing to listen to my proposal? If not im more then willing to give the boy back to you, I can't guarantee he'll be alive though"

He looked at not only Makarov but the entire guild with a devilish smirk on his face. Lucy stared at the holigram as her grip tightened on the handle of her celestial whip but before she could take a step forward Makarov did with the floor beneath him breaking a bit "What is it?"

Natsu's holigram slowly disappeared as the man sat down on a random seat "First let me introduce myself Makarov, my name is Heiland. And im the guild master of Blood Hornet, I'm sure you've heard the rumors and tales surrounding it haven't you?"

Makarov slowly nodded still being cautious of what he did or said considering that Natsu was still being held prisoner "I've heard that it's been around for quite some time, hundreds of years in fact"

Heiland nodded as he leaned back in his seat "About 320 years ago to be exact, thats when I first created the guild and started recruiting guild members"

Makarov looked at his in complete shock before taking a step towards him "what do you mean you started the guild? Theres no way you could have lived for that long"

"That is correct Makarov, an ordinary person would not be able to live for that long. But on a night long ago, I was blessed with abilities that let me live to this age. Very powerful and dangerous abilities that should be saved for the end of this story, when only one guild is left standing" Even though this was a simple holigram Makarov knew that this man had powers, ones that could be used to hurt his children

"Back to what you came here for, you said you wanted to issue a challenge did you not?" Makarov wanted to get Heiland out of the guild as soon as possible just in case he had another motive for coming to the guild hall himself

"The challenge, well Makarov I prefer to keep my guild a secret from any and all people unlucky enough to find it. But instead of just destroying this guild in a single move, I decided to test out my newest soldiers considering the strength and accomplishments of all these nice people. I would like for the Celestial Mage, Ice Mage, Dragon Slayer, and Requip Mage to return to my guild to compete with my soldiers, this however excludes those exceeds they have"

"And what if I refuse this challenge? Will you destroy us to keep your guild a secret? Because I can guarantee, that we will win that fight" Makarov glared at him with everyone in the guild nodding and agreeing

"You can refuse to accept my challenge if that is what you truly want, but im not so sure that is what your little fire mage wants. After all, who would want to go through nearly a year of torture to just be killed because his friends were too frightened to come save him" At the sound of his words leaving his mouth Lucy felt her rage boil inside of her as she made her way towards him only to be met with a giant hand from the master

He knew if Lucy offended him in any way it could mean an end to Natsu's life so he nodded before shrinking his hand to normal size "We agree to your challenge, but once we defeat your soldiers we want Natsu returned to us alive and well along with you turning yourself in to the magic council"

Heiland nodded not having any fear of losing as he looked at Makarov "of course, but when your children are killed I will make sure to come here and kill you myself in front of the rest of these people, Do we have an agreement?"

Makarov nodded with hate filled eyes as he begrudgingly shaked Heiland's "Yes, now leave this place at once"

He simply gave him a proud smirk before nodding and stood up till Lucy yelled "Wait! I want to know something, how did you capture Natsu?"

He looked at Lucy with no clear emotion on his face but made his way towards her "The answer is very simple little girl, I simply grabbed him from right under your nose"

He slowly disappeared as Lucy glared at him while clenching her fists in rage, completely enraged that Natsu was there with those people. Makarov slowly made his way over to her placing his hand on hers "I know this is difficult, but if you want to help Natsu and bring him home, you have to defeat those people"

She nodded looking down at him till they both heard someone clear their throat to see Laxus standing there with his arms crossed "I think you have some answering to do first gramps. Like for starters, how long have you known that Natsu was alive? And why the rest of the guild didn't know, aren't you always saying that we're a family, family shouldn't have secrets"

Makarov looked up at his grandson as well as the rest of the guild who didn't know about Natsu and sighed taking a seat on the bar "You all saw that man, even if it was just a holigram you should have been able to see just how strong he is. If I had told you all you would have rushed into their guild in an attempt to save Natsu. I couldn't let you kids risk your lives like that, at least not until we knew for sure that he was there and alive"

Some people in the guild started to understand that he meant well but most were still angry at the secret he kept from them. Especially Laxus who slammed his fist into the bar counter "Tell me right now, whats keeping all of us from marching down there and recuing Natsu"

It was quiet for a split second till a giants fist slammed down onto the bar counter completely destroying it and only missing Laxu's hand by an inch. They saw Makarov with an angered look on his face as he stood up on the only part of the bar not yet destroyed "Because I am your guild master and you will do what I say, and I will not let anyone else be hurt by those people! For right now we will play by their rules, at least until we can guarantee Natsu's safety. Thats why I dont want anyone leaving unless I say so, do I make myself clear Laxus?"

He looked at his still angered grandson only to see him turn around and stomp his way out of the guild, even if it was Laxus, Makarov knew no one would head to that guild unless he told them to. "I want everyone to head home and rest, we will discuss this tomorrow when the entire guild is present"

He looked at the rest of the guild members still present but noticed them just staring at him, some even with anger in their eyes. Makarov knew what this was about and closed his eyes before speaking "yes, I knew about Natsu and kept from all of you but I had only learned about this when Erza and the rest returned. But you have to understand that I kept it from all of you to protect you, but I want you all to know that im sorry"

He looked at all the angered faces glaring him down as each one made their way out of the guild. He sighed as he looked at even Mira start to walk out before looking back at him "I'm going home, im sure you can clean up tonight and fix the bar you destroyed"

She walked out of the guild doors as Makarov noticed the guild was quite a mess along with the completely destroyed bar counter next to him, he however simply got up and began to clean up. As for Mira, she didn't exactly go home. She walked through the darkened streets over to the large church in the center of town, when she walked inside she made her way to the ladder leading to the roof. When she got up on the roof she spotted a familiar someone sitting and just looking out at the city.

She smiled at him before carefully stepping over to him and took a sit next to him. She looked up at the blonde man with a lighting bolt scar over his eye before looking out at the city "I figured you might be here, never saw you as the type of person who goes to church to reflect on things though"

Laxus just sighed trying to ignore her till she moved closer nudging him lightly "It's not nice to ignore someone talking to you, then again you have always been like that. Even when we were kids and you were the oldest one of the bunch"

She smiled at him till she heard him groan "So you're saying im still like that brat who only cared about himself and even tried to take over the guild, who hurt his friends, who nearly killed the guy who's captured right now"

Mira noticed the change of tone in his voice and looked down at her feet trying to avoid eye contact "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I think I understand why you come to this spot every now and then though..."

They both remained in silence for some time till Laxus finally spoke up "I nearly blew up this damn city, that alone should keep me kicked out for good. That's why I went to the island, to try and make up for what I did, I wasn't looking to get back in the guild, to get a prize, hell not even a thank you. I just..."

Before he could finish he felt a small soft hand on top of his only to see Mira smiling at him "I know, I know how you feel Laxus. There's no need to explain yourself, but a piece of advice, talk about it with someone close to you. Someone you know will help you" She leaned on him as her smile softened, remembering how she also felt guilty after Lissana's supposing death.

Not only was she not strong enough to defeat the monster, but her little brother was forced to do something that would haunt the both of them for years. She started thinking back to that night till she felt her hand get lightly squeezed then looked up at a slightly worried Laxus "Hey you okay there? You just zoned out on me there"

She nodded quickly looking up at him and squeezed his hand back smiling lightly "Yeah... I'm fine. But it's late and a woman like myself shouldn't be walking these streets alone. Would you walk me home?"

He looked at her confused knowing she could very well defeat Tartorous demons but nodded as he stood up "Yeah sure, just dont expect me to do this again alright?"

"Of course, we wouldn't want all your fans to get jealous" She giggled as she made her way to the ladder and climbed back down with Laxus right behind her. Once they got on ground level they started walking towards Mira's home with the two of them even leaning on each other, even though he acted all tough Mira knew Laxus had a gentle heart.

While those two were having a peaceful stroll however, two particular people were having a little chat. Heiland was sitting on his throne like chair as Sylvia stood in front of him with her arms crossed "Why offer up a challenge? Why even contact them in the first place, isn't it obvious that they're returning to attempt and rescue the boy?"

"Of course they would return to launch another attack, but let me tell you something Sylvia. These people could actually give me a worthy challenge, one I have not had in a long time. Why do you think I did what I did concerning the boy? You know he isn't here as a simple prisoner, have you forgotten?"

"O-of course not Master!" She quickly kneeled till he told her to rise and looked up at the older man

"But I still dont understand, why send them a message?" She looked at him confused till the bladed end of his golden staff was pressed against her neck

"You dont understand? Its all very simple, I planted lies inside their heads. And soon enough those lies will sprout into what will ultimately defeat them. The key to all of this is the boy after all" He smirked as he drew back his staff and watched Sylvia make her way out of the room "Let the fun begin"


	16. Plans

After all that had occured at the guild the day before it was an understatement to say that the guild was a bit hectic right now. Not only had Makarov kept the news about Natsu being alive from most of the guild but now they were being forced into a fight. Makarov didn't have the slightest idea of these people's full capabilities but they were definitely warriors, they entered the guild to kill their own former guild member with ease and even pushed back the recon team that he had sent to examine their guild. And not only could they kill Natsu at any time if they wished, but they had him playing right into their hands

Thats why he called the people Heiland requested into his office to discuss a plan, because at the moment he didn't have one. He looked up at Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Gajeel and did the only thing he could do, state the obvious "You all will go to that guild and fight, you all have seen some of their abilities so you must have some clue to their strengths and weaknesses"

Everyone just stared at their guild master seeing how he didn't know what to do till Erza stepped forward "What if we sent in a second team during the fighting? Just like we did to rescue Lucy during the Grand Magic Games"

Makarov shook his head at the idea before taking a seat "This is different from back then, there wasn't a possibility of the king killing Lucy. If he suspects anything suspicious then he could kill Natsu on the spot, we would need to insure that Natsu is safe before making any risky movements"

Everyone remained silent not having anything to really say but recollect on everything and hope that their mind realized something they hadn't themselves. "The best thing we can do at the moment is go over what we know and hopefully come up with some sort of plan. When you attacked the guild he sent out a new person, the boy with the speed"

Gray nodded remembering how it was different then the speed magics he's faced before as Erza stepped forward drawing the layout of the building on a large black sheet of paper "We were attacked at multiple locations by those people"

Makarov examined the outer layout of the building before looking at them "Considering he sent out that boy it must mean he was taking precautions to ensure you all didn't get inside. Meaning that those four could possibly be his only useable guild members, they came here and killed the archer and Mira says she struck the elderly man accompanying them"

"Then it would make sense why he asked for us four instead of all five of us since Wendy was with us when we attacked, if he does intend to keep his promise about this being fair then it would make sense, four against four" Lucy looked down at the layout and placed her hand on her keys getting a bad feeling about this challenge

As Lucy thought about who she could end up fighting Levy barged in holding a few books before looking at Makarov "Levy, have you found what I asked you for?"

She nodded as she walked over to the desk and set the books she had down before opening one and began to flip through it "I couldn't find much about Blood Hornet in the guild library since it is mostly considered a myth but I did find something about the guild master. Apparently he is immortal and has lived for many years by draining the blood from his enemies and also their life force in the process, similar to the myth of the vampire"

"Vampire? Well im not too sure about that but if what Heiland said was true then it does match with this story, perhaps he has drained life force from people over the years and has continued to live for centuries. But if that's so that just makes him even more dangerous, so if anything suspicious occurs during the fighting retreat immediately, all of you" All four of them nodded at the masters demand before Lucy took a closer look at the books Levy brought in

"Me and Levy-chan will continue to look over the books and see if we can find anything else out" Lucy helped Levy carry the books back downstairs as Makarov looked at the rest excusing them

They each went their own way preparing for what was to come in a different manner. Erza examined the cubes that her swords had been transformed into, Gajeel went to do some training with Pantherlily, Gray sat at a table beside Juvia reflecting on his possible opponents, and Lucy went to the Library with Levy to research the guild further

The day continued on as it would any other day with everyone going along with their own activities except for Lucy and Levy staying in the library alot longer they usually did. There was still tension in the air however due to Makarov keeping this from most of the guild and he also didn't do such a good job on repairing the bar counter he destroyed. Lucy and Levy didn't notice however due to them practically having a wall of books covering both of them

They had continued researching on Blood Hornet but found practically no information but they still kept at it, neither of them moved from their spots in the library till Lucy felt something soft and small land on her head only to see happy laying on her head "Lucy are you almost done? Its getting late and I want to go home, why dont we just take some of these books with us?"

Lucy let out a quiet sigh before picking Happy up off her head and nodded knowing it's probably best to head home with him "Okay Happy, we can go home but you're helping me carry some books"

Happy nodded as Lucy put some books into her bag which she handed to Happy and picked some up herself before looking at Levy "I'll see you later Levy-chan, here's hoping that we actually find something"

Levy nodded waving as she saw her best friend and the exceed walk out of the library with Happy holding the bag full of books as he flew. She looked around seeing how dark the library seemed without most of the lights turned on but felt especially creeped out due to what she had been researching. It was similar to when she saw a horror movie when she was a kid and couldn't stand to walk alone in dark places

She however took a deep breath and got up walking towards the light switch to lighten up the place till she heard a footstep that wasn't hers and froze. She felt like a scared little kid again but clenched her fist as she continued to walk but felt eyes on her. She held out two fingers to use her Script Magic with as she quickened her pace but as she turned a corner... "Boo!"

"FIRE!" She jumped slightly at the sudden surprise and quickly wrote the word in the air before burning her attacker. She saw him get knocked to the ground before grabbing a possible weapon which ended up being a book since she was surrounded by them. She tried to smack him with the book but the book was just pulled out of her hand as she saw an angry Gajeel stand up with soot covering part of his face

"I yell boo and you attack me with fire? What the hell is your deal shrimp?" He looked down at Levy obviously angered bur saw Levy turn around with her arms crossed

"Well you shouldn't sneak up on people, especially when im researching an immortal vampire that you are going to fight! And it certainly doesn't help that the library is almost entirely dark" Gajeel looked at her surprised due to her sudden outburst, even when he messed with her at home she didn't get that angry

He set the book she was attacking him with down and wiped the soot off of his face, he moved closer to her and as she was expecting a hug or at least a pat on the back she was suddenly lifted off the ground. She saw him pick her up by the back of her dress with one arm and walk to the light switchs with her before turning them on and lighting up the room "Okay im sorry for sneaking up on you, but whats wrong?"

She avoided eye contact till he set her down and she kept her arms crossed "For one you called me Shrimp again, you know I dont like it..."

"And secondly... You're gonna leave soon, you're gonna go fight some crazy powerful people and maybe even that vampire! Dont you think I would be worried? I know this is to save Natsu but you could have at least went, 'Hey there Levy, im gonna go save Salamander. I know you worry about me so I promise to come back safe and sound, love you' " She huffed lightly as she finished mimicking him only to have a hand placed on her head

She looked up to see the iron dragon slayer smiling at her and lean in slightly "Hey there Levy, im gonna go save Salamander. I know you worry about me so I promise to come back safe and sound, love you"

She blushed slightly hearing him actually say it then moved closer wrapping her arms around him hugging him tightly "You better..."

They each held each other closely with Gajeel actually being slightly worried about this as well but knew he couldn't show it, he had to be strong for them both. They both smiled as they stood there not realizing that a certain bar maid was watching from the entrance of the library. She quietly walked out with a big smile on her face "I knew it"

While all this was happening Erza was at Fairy Hills sitting on her bed looking at one of the cubes her swords had gotten turned into. She had been staring at it for a while now and just ended up gettinf frustrated, she opened up a bedside drawer about to throw the cube into it till she saw an old communication lacrima which had been collecting dust. She set the metallic cube aside before setting the lacrima on her bed and dusted it off, she examined her hair and face before activating the lacrima slightly worried

It stayed dead for some time till she the familiar blue haired face tattooed man she talked with while the guild was disbanded. She smiled at him hoping that she looked alright considering she was in pajamas and about to head to bed "Uh, hi there Jellal. I just wanted to call and see how you were doing?"

She smiled nervously as she saw him look at her with a confused look "Really? Because I had been waiting to hear from you, after we decided to drop our search for Blood Hornet you said you would contact me and tell me about what happened"

Erza blushed slightly forgetting about the deal that they gad made before and nodded quickly "O-of course! Thats what I meant to talk to you about"

She laughed nervously as Jellal just looked at her knowing that she had forgotten, he was still happy however to hear from her and actually see her more cute side "So what did happen there? I'm assuming everything is alright for the moment since you're alive and well"

"Well things didn't go as planned, we were discovered and were pushed back by his men. They posses very powerful magic, and on the way out... Lucy says that she saw Natsu. We found out it was true when the guild master came to the guild and offered to release Natsu if we beat his people in combat"

"You know the odds are in their favor right? Not only did they force you to retreat but you yourself said they posses powerful magic. I think it would be best if you let us handle this, they aren't expecting an attack from us and they dont know what magic we use" Jellal looked at the red headed mage who remained silent for some time

"I know the odds are in their favor but we have to at least attempt to fight them, at least attempt to rescue Natsu. For the past year we all thought he had died, we owe it to him to save him. And that's why I would like your help..."

Erza began to explain her plan to him nof knowing that Blood Hornet was preparing their own plan for Fairy Tails arrival. Heiland stood at a table with the layout to the building on it and four of his guild members around him. "When they arrive here we have already set up a trap to seperate them you all will fight each in one on one combat"

He looked at all four of them before his eyes were fixed on the young man wearing the red hoodie "Except for you Lucas, I have something planned just for you. If everything goes according to plan then we'll be able to defeat all of these fairies in one attempt"


	17. Breakfast

It was a quiet morning at the Blood Hornets guild, everyone was calm inside their own rooms including Heiland. He stood in his large room looking out at the dark bare forest, his golden staff was set to the side since there was no need for it at the moment. He looked down at the dead tress but noticed a small girl in a plain white dress holding a teddy bear, he stared at her before closing his eyes for a moment. As soon as he opened it he saw that the small girl was there no more, he calmed down slightly till he heard a small giggle

"Your beard looks funny!" He quickly turned around and punched at thin air, he looked around the room carefully before loosening his fist and took a deep breath

"You have long passed away, you are gone. I saw it with my own eyes" He grabbed his staff before walking out of his room but heard another giggle behind him as he shut the door. He walked down the hall attempting to erase that thought from his head till he saw the young man in the red hoodie, Lucas, walk out of what looked like a door heading into a lower area of the mansion

"Lucas, are they ready to be transported?" He was met with a nod from Lucas as he began to lock the door "Of course Master Heiland, but I never thought we would attempt to use them again after last time"

"The last attempt using them may have ended in failure but we did gain something valuable from the test. I want you to be ready to transport them on my command, do I make myself clear?" He looked down at Lucas bowing and told him to stand

"But I do have to ask master, didn't you tell those fairies that we would fight against them in a fair game" He looked up at his master till he felt a hand placed on his shoulder

"Why would we? Because I said we would? Words are meaningless Lucas, do you think they would actually fight us fairly if we didn't have one of their allies? It's best that you learn this now, humanity is nothing but lies and greed. All of you have learned that in one way or another" He looked down at the young boy before walking away thinking about that small girl holding the teddy bear

"Thats why I have to destroy them, I will not waste this gift of eternal life. I will wash away the darkness of mankind, starting with that guild" He walked away as Lucas watched him wondering just what his guild master had experienced in his long past

He didn't have much time to think about that however, due to the fact that he heard loud growling downstairs from where he had just came from. He let out a long groan and hurried back downstairs while in Magnolia Fairy Tail was still making preparations. Including Lucy who had been going through books all night, not realiIzing that resting her head would lead to her falling asleep.

Happy stood on top of the book covered desk and looked down at the sleeping Lucy who was mumbling in her sleep with drool escaping her mouth. She had a genuine smile on her face which was rare to see when she was awake "Natsuuuuu... Stop it... That tickles..."

She giggled slightly in her sleep till Happy accidentally knocked over a book causing her to immediately sit up in her chair which was immediately followed by a groan. She had a stiff neck, her hair was a mess, and she saw most of her notes she had taken crumpled up while she slept "ugh... What time is it?"

"Its ten o'clock, you fell asleep last night reading these books. I tried to carry you to bed but each time I tried you whined and said no" Lucy blushed a bit at her actions and got up rubbing her stiff neck and walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth

"Sorry, I'll make it up to you with some fish later. But couldn't you have woken me up? I just wanted to rest my eyes a bit, not fall asleep" she looked back at the exceed as she grabbed her brush and began washing her teeth

"You need your sleep Lucy, besides I dont like when you stay up late. You start muttering to yourself and start saying that you see things" He looked over at her as she rinsed her teeth and spit into the sink. He watched her walk back over to him before smiling

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides I wasn't gonna find anything super helpful in these books anyway" She smiled at him as she began cleaning up her desk but only agreed with him because she did get a bit... Weird at night. Without much sleep she didnt think too clearly and saw hallucinations or something of the sort, especially of Natsu. She looked over the notes she had taken last night on the crumpled paper and put them aside for later.

She looked at Happy help organize some of her books she had out and walked to the kitchen deciding to prepare breakfast. She had promised him a fish after all and she was about to leave him alone for a while. She hated the thought of having to leave him alone for some time but she couldn't risk losing Natsu when she was this close, after a year she was closer to getting him back then she had ever been. Lucy got out some eggs and bacon for herself and for Happy, a large salmon.

Meanwhile at Gajeels house, he had let Levy sleep over last night after a large dinner and some rather fun activities as he likes to put it. He slowly opened her eyes to the sight of the Script Mage getting out of bed getting her clothes back on, he would have minded if not for the view he got when she bent over to pick up her dress. Levy turned around though to catch him staring and sighed putting her dress on "I think I prefer you when you're asleep and mumbling my name and not staring at my ass. But I guess it is time to get up"

She threw him his shirt as she fixed her hair and sat back on the bed "So... I guess today is the day you and the others are leaving right? To go fight that guild... Led by a vampire man... Who has lived for centuries... And is very dangerous... And who you're gonna fight... And who.." Levy was finally cut off as Gajeel placed his large hand over mouth quieting her

"Okay, the more you talk about it the more you're gonna be worried. And if you worry then im gonna worry, so how about you stop talking about it and we have breakfast? That sound nice?" He felt her smile against his hand and slowly removed it as he got up off the bed. He watched the short bluenette fix her hair but he had to admit her talking about it did get him worried

She was alot smarter than he was, even if he doesn't like to admit it. Hearing her talk about how dangerous this was and how strong that guy would be did manage to get to him. He chose to ignore it however and just spend some time with her so she wouldn't worry. He walked out to the kitchen getting out some ingredients only to turn around and see Pantherlily standing on the counter

"You are prepared to go fight them correct? You do understand that these aren't normal opponents, they're dangerous people who have been holding Natsu for well over a year now." Gajeel let out a sigh essentially having the same conversation he had just had a few minutes ago but Lily wasn't as easy to shut up

"Yeah I know these guys are strong, and yes I know they've been holding Salamander for over a damn year. That why im going to go save him" Lily noticed the tone in his voice which was a bit unusual for his partner. He was then picked up by Levy who held him against her chest looking at Gajeel

"Lily brings up good points Gajeel, you have to remember that you're walking into their guild where they have the advantage and where they've been holding Natsu. You have to be careful" She looked at him squeezing Lily slightly but not to the point of suffocating the poor exceed which she did during the Grand Magic Games

"Okay listen, both of you, I've known both of you for a long time now and im pretty damn sure that earns me some trust. Especially since we've dating for well over half a year Levy, so if I promise to come back safe and sound can we stop talking about this?" He was met with the two them nodding in unison which surprised him a bit

"Fine, I promise to come back safe and sound. But while we're on the subject of us dating, how about when I get back we start trying for a kid? Sound like a good idea right?" He grinned as he turned around turning on the stove as Levys face immediately turned red at the thought of having a kid. Gajeel knew this would shut her up at least for breakfast and began cooking

While Gajeel cooked one of his closest friends was doing the exact same thing, Juvia was attempting to cook breakfast for Gray but it wasn't going so well. She had turned the stove up a bit too much leading to a pan fire which she put out but with a bit too much water. She looked down at the wet floor and began looking for the mop but turned around to see Gray standing there holding it "Looking for this?"

She blushed out of embarrassment but nodded and took it beginning to clean up the floor "You know, when I gave you the key to my place I didn't expect to wake up to fires and my floor soaking wet"

"And Juvia is very very sorry about all this, she just wanted to make you breakfast in bed. Unfortunately Juvia cant seem to cook that well" She looked down as cleaned up the floor avoiding eye contact with him

"Yeah, Lucy told me about when you tried to bake me a cake for our 'anniversary'. But maybe some cooking classes would help, and that scarf you gave me was nice" Juvia simply nodded till her head sprang up remembering that he had not taken the scarf when she offered it to him. A large smile spread across her face figuring that he went back to retrieve it

"Juvia is very happy you liked it, its a shame you didn't accept Juvia's body pillow however. It wasn't easy to make" Gray nodded but walked closer wrapping his arms around her from behind and pulled her close "Why use a body pillow when I got the real thing?"

This really put a smile on Juvias face as she began cleaning with quick speed finishing up before Gray had even started cooking breakfast for them, she was glad about this though because now she could take notes on how to cook

Not everyone was having a pleasant morning however, since Jellal and the rest of Crime Sorciere were hiking up a large hill with Cobra constantly complaining "Okay so let me get this straight, first we dont come here because your girlfriend asks us not to. But now that she's asking us to head to that guild we're running over there? You know Jellal, for doing everything she says you think you would at least get laid"

He laughed at his own joke as they walked but was met with a remark as Angel passed him "Dont see you getting laid very much, at least he's talking to a girl"

He growled at her as they walked and when the group reached the top of the hill they saw a large green looking forest but in the center they could tell there was strong magic keeping the guild hidden. No one really thought anything of it till cobra raised an eyebrow looking in the direction of the guild "hey Jellal, they got Natsu locked up in there right? As a prisoner?"

Jellal simply nodded looking at him, he figured that even through the magical barrier Cobra could hear something "yes, is something happening to him? Because if it is we might have to enact Erzas plan a bit sooner than hoped"

"No thats not it, even though it's hard to make out I can definitely hear him eating breakfast" No one thought anything of this comment as Meredy tapped his shoulder "Well he obviously needs to eat, if he's been there for over a year of course they've been feeding him"

"Not like that! I mean he is eating breakfast but he's chowing down, on a lot of food. I doubt they would be giving that kind of food to a prisoner. And as someone who was in prison I know" The group still didn't think much of this except for Jellal who narrowed his eyes

"Keep an ear on the location, until we hear something occur we stay put. This location should be far enough for them not to notice us" Everyone nodded in agreement but after a few minutes most of the group became quite bored, with some even falling asleep.

Erza was wide awake however, she stood on the beach below the cliff which Fairy Hills stood on with two swords in her hands. She stood still for a moment before beginning to slash at air but kept requipping her swords over and over. It was almost instantaneous but it did slow her down a bit and drained her magic but she simply kept at it. She slashed at the air with growing force eventually cutting a rock in half and slicing open water with the force from her swings. Her breathing had gotten heavier and there was a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead but she just sighed

The swords she was holding vanished as she looked down at her hands tightening them into fists "Not fast enough... Still not fast enough"

"It looked plenty fast to me, you are very skilled with swords after all" Erza turned around to see Wendy smiling at her with Carla floating right beside her "But even though you're skilled doesn't mean you can be swinging them around like that"

Erza simply smiled at Carlas comment knowing she just showed concern and walked over to the two "I'll keep that in mind, but why are you two down here? Did you need something?"

"Well I saw you leave early without even eating breakfast and I got a bit worried, it's not like you to skip out on breakfast. Especially considering that you're going into a fight soon, and a dangerous one at that" Wendy looked up her older guildmate showing some concern for her

"Thank you for asking but im quite alright Wendy, just forgot is all. I wanted to do some last minute training before we left to meet with Blood Hornet, besides im not that hungry" She smiled down at the sky dragon slayer till her stomach grumbled to which Erza simply began to walk off with Wendy and Carla following "On the other hand, I guess some food wouldn't be too bad"

Wendy let out a small giggle and even Carla smiled but as they walked Erza could tell something was bothering Wendy "Is everything alright Wendy? You seem a bit off this morning"

"Uh... No Erza-san. Well actually, there is one thing. When that Heiland person asked for everyone who attacked the guild except me, I know its cause im not as strong as you I still want to help rescue Natsu-san. He's like.a brother to me and has been there for me and now I cant even help fight to bring him home" Wendy lowered her head as Carla looked at her with a saddened look, self confidence had always been an issue for Wendy and even now she still seems to have some trouble with it.

Carla couldn't think of anything else to do but hug her which was immediately followed by a hug from Erza "I know you think that Wendy but you're just as strong as anyone else, you've grown alot from that timid shy girl we first met. You took on Hades, fought a God Slayer to a stand still at the Grand Magic Games, fought a dragon, and even defeated a demon from Tartorous. And even though you wont be with me when we rescue him, you will be here when we bring him back"

Wendy nodded up at Erza with a smile on her face as Carla was happy to see her smiling once again "Okay Erza-san, I'll be here for Natsu-san when he finally returns"

Erza smiled at her as the three of them walked and placed her hand on Wendys shoulder "Besides, with all that strength you could probably help keep the guild from getting destroyed while im gone. There seems to be fights alot more when im gone"

"Okay Erza-san, I promise to have the guild nice and ready for when you all get back." They both smiled at each other as Carla looked at Wendy "That doesn't mean you have to involve yourself in unnecessary fights though"


	18. Dogs of war

It was a sunny day, an ordinary sunny day which would be fine for a picnic or a party. But neither of those were an option for our mages this day, these days they didn't really have any time for fun or truly happy days. These sort of days began about a year again after the incident with Natsu, the one that Lucy continues to blame herself for. If this day had happened before the event Natsu, Lucy, and Happy would probably be heading out on a job to get Lucy money for rent and Natsu money for food. This was the exact opposite of what that day would be though, Lucy, along with the other requested were currently on a dirt road walking towards the dark mansion which held their friend captive.

"I'm not the only who thinks this is a terrible idea right? This obviously isn't going to be some easy fight where we win and they just let Natsu go" Gray blurted out breaking the silence the group had for a while now

"Of course not but as master said, we have no choice but to play by their rules to save Natsu"

"Yeah but considering that Salamander is not dead he must be pretty messed up after a year of being a prisoner. Hell, I'll be amazed if he isn't completely broken by the time we get there" As soon as the Iron Dragon Slayer finished he was met with a hard elbow to his side by Erza nodding towards Lucy

He was about to apologize to her knowing she wasn't in too good a place herself but was stopped as she began to speak "I know he might have gone through some bad things, but he is still gonna be the same Natsu. I just know it, after this is all done everything will go back to normal"

She attempted to sound cheerful but couldn't due to them passing the magical barrier which disguised the forest. They all saw the healthy green trees turn into old dead ones and all the grass was gone. It was a dark empty place except for the large mansion which stood in the center of the area. As they walked closer to the entrance they noticed large track marks showing that something had been dragged in or out of the mansion

"We go in, we defeat whoever we have to however we have to then we grab Natsu and leave. They obviously won't fight on fair ground so be on guard" They all nodded to Erza's warning till the doors opened and Heilan stepped out in his royalty like robes

"At least you're smart enough to realize that, but I do feel a bit offended that you thought that. Why don't you follow me inside?" The group watched as he walked inside with Lucy tightening her fist being overwhelmed by the anger inside her heart

"Calm down, we have to play this smart otherwise this is all pointless" she looked at Gray who had just placed his hand on her shoulder before walking inside followed by her and the others. As soon as they stepped inside it didn't seem too different from any other mansion, just a simple large entrance with a pair of large stairs leading upstairs

"You all must want to get straight to it since I did promise your friends freedom if you won. And that I will do, so if each of you defeat my knights then you're free to take back your friend" He smiled at them and as soon as he snapped his fingers a large magic curcle appeared under them and in an instant they were gone

Heiland didn't pay much attention to anything afterwards and began walking towards a communication lacrima inside of the room "Lucas? Is everything prepared?"

On the other end of the communication lacrima the young boy in a red hoodie and black pants immediately sat up nodding "yes sir! Ready to go on your command!"

"Release them, we may have failed to control one of these creatures a year ago but their dangerous and destructive nature will be enough to help us destroy them. And defeat any of the mages that get in the way understood?"

"Of course, I will make sure everything goes smoothly" Once he was done he stood up and jumped down from where he was only to be met with a loud growl from inside the cage "Hey calm down! I'm not your meal, they are"

He held out his finger pointing down at Magnolia in the distance and the large Fairy Tail guild "So, how about for dinner you all chow down on some fairies?"

Lucas smiled wide looking at the numerous cages he had dragged from their guild all the way to the outskirts of Magnolia. Inside each were two or three large wolf like creatures with sharp teeth, claws, and all around features. He quickly zoomed past all the cages opening them, letting the wild momsters loose on the town below.

Down in the unexpecting town all the citizens were just going on with their daily routines, as well as the guild members. Even though none of them could stop thinking about their friends on this dangerous mission they tried to act as if it was an ordinary day. Mira was unloading some crates of food which had recently been delivered along with some help from Laxus "Is that the last of the crates?"

"Yeah!" Mira watched as Laxus walked out of the back of the carriage holding a large crate of canned foods in his arms "You owe me for helping you with this"

"And here I thought you were just being a gentleman helping me out" She said sarcastically as she waved by to the driver of the carriage

"You better than anyone should know that I'm not a gentleman" Mira simply smiled about to retort till the two of them heard a scream out near the front of the guild. The two of them ran out to the front seeing a woman running from the large wolf like beast who was about to try and take a bite of her arm.

It couldn't however as it was met with a fist surrounded by lightning to its jaw as Laxus punched it, the beast didn't seem that faced by it though and was about to take a bite out of Laxus till it was punched into the ground by Mira in her demon form "Run! Get inside!"

The woman on the ground quickly nodded running into the guild as Laxus and Mira both blasted the monster to make sure it stayed down then took a look around seeing a large number of the same creatures roaming the city "What the hell are these things? I've never seen anything like them before?"

"Me either, but we need to handle these things before they hurt anyone" Laxus lit his hand up with lightning as the beast behind them suddenly began to stand up again growling

"I'll handle this one, you go make sure these things don't do any serious damage and make sure the civilians are safe" Mira nodded as she flew up into the sky searching for any civilians out on the streets while Laxus took another swing at the large beast "I don't know what the hell you are but I'm gonna enjoy beating you down"

Back at the mansion Gajeel was falling into some bushes after suddenly being teleported by the magic circle on the ground. He growled loudly quickly cutting it away with a large iron sword before taking in his surroundings. There were many trimmed and cut hedges along with some large statues of animals such as lions or bears. Gajeel began to walk around what he figured to be a garden till he heard a voice behind him "You shouldn't be here, none of you should"

He turned around quickly with his arm becoming an iron sword once again but he froze as he saw her, the little black haired girl who had attacked the guild "You, when he said knights I wasn't expecting to be fighting you"

The girl stood still as she looked at him before shaking her head with tears beginning to stream down her face "Please go... I don't want to hurt anyone..."

Gajeel looked at the small girl confused and began to walk towards her till black magic appeared around her and immediately turned into a black spike which launched at Gajeel. He was pushed back by it even though he blocked it with the sword and narrowly managed to move in time to dodge the second one which was aimed at his side but was immediately hit by a third one sending him to the ground.

"Dammit... You just caught me off guard brat. Don't expect me to not beat the crap out of you just because you're a kid" He growled standing up but as he began to run towards her he suddenly stopped, not even knowing why, but he just did as he saw a small girl scared and crying. Not a dangerous opponent

That didn't seem to save him though as he was hit by the black magic coming off of her sending him back to the ground. Erza wasn't having much luck either as she was face to face with Sylvia, the green haired woman who wielded a hammer "Glad to see master trusts me enough to handle you, then again our first fight was pretty one sided"

"This fight wont be anything like our last one" Erza ran towards her requiping a sword to her hand which she swung at her only to be countered by that hammer. A grin grew on sylvias face till she heard Erza mumble something under her breath as her sword turned to a cube and she quickly jumped back

"Were you saying something? I couldn't hear you over that sword of yours turning into a metal cube" She didnt get a response back as Erza simply ran back in repeating the same process of attcking her, mumbling something as her sword transformed, and jumping back

"Dont you understand? Any sword that you attack me with I can change, its pointless to attack me. So why don't you bow down to me and I'll make your death a painless one"

"Now why would I do that when I just figured out that hammer of yours, and how to defeat you" A large smile grew on Erza's as she requiped anothed sword rushing at the other woman

"Ice make cannon!" Gray shot a large amount of ice at the man across from him which was pushed back by sonic waves from his fists. There was a struggle in the middle of them till the waves blasted through the ice shattering the cannon and sending Gray back

"You know, for someone who can't see you sure can aim those sound attacks" He stood up with a smirk on his face as the blindfolded man took a few steps towards him

"I can't really see, I just hear really well. And this magic helps me know where things are" He held out his fist blasting another sound attack to which Gray quickly jumped out of the way running behind a bookshelf. Being teleported to a dark library would have helped him sneak up on him but if what the guy was saying was true it didn't matter where he hid as long as he could hear him

"My friend that you guys got chained up fought someone like you before, if he could beat him then me beating you should be a piece of cake" He quickly ran off hoping to get the jump on him but saw him follow him in his direction. Gray didn't know much about this guy but he sure hoped everyone was having an easier time with their opponents

"When they said I would finally get to fight I was hoping for someone a bit more fun, you're not really that strong" Lucy breathed heavily standing to her feet as she wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth looking at who she was fighting

"I don't know what this is, and I don't care, but I am taking my friend back with me. So if this is another mind trick, I guess I'm just gonna have to beat you to get to the real Natsu" she grabbed her celestial whip cracking it on the ground as the man across from her punched his fist against his palm lighting it on fire

"Dont know what you're talking about and don't care, but how about you actually put up a fight?" He showed off a toothy grin walking closer to her

"I had hoped to see that grin when we were finally back home, not when I was fighting you... Natsu..." She looked at her old friend, the one she was fighting for, charging at he with his fists engulfed in flames.

"If this is what I have to do to save my friend then I'll give you the fight of your life!" She screamed as she charged at him changing into her Leo Celestial Dress as the two of them lamded a punch on the others face. One covered in flames and once covered in golden light


	19. Bad Feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone who actually reads my stories, I'm back with a new chapter and hope you all enjoy

Lucy's eyes widened as a large magical circle appeared beneath her feet teleporting her as well as the other Fairy Tail mages to different areas of the mansion. She fell on the ground as her feet weren't prepared to land on the smooth floor beneath them. It felt smooth against her hands as she stood up, she took in her surroundings finding that she was in what seemed to be a ball room. A nice one at that, similar to when they were hired to keep that fancy ring from being robbed at Magic Dance Ball. She didn't have much time to recollect however as she spotted someone across the room, someone that Lucy recognized, someone that she had lost. Before she could even think her legs began to move on their own across the room with tears building up in her eyes "Natsu!"

There was only a few feet sperating the two but as soon as his face came into clear view his hand was engulfed in flames. A confused look grew on Lucy's happy face before her eyes widened just nearly moving out of the way of the fist that was aimed at her face. She fell to the ground again before looking at her friend shocked "Natsu!?"

Lucy reacted quickly and rolled to the side as his fist collided with the ground shattering it. Lucy managed to stand up but was still forced to back up once more when another flaming punch was thrown towards her "What are you doing!? Its me!"

Unfortunately, due to Natsu's fighting skills he landed a punch on her stomach knocking the air out of her which was followed by a punch to her face sending her rolling onto the ground. Lucy managed to get some air back in her as she slowly stood to her feet wiping some blood off the corner of her mouth from the punch. After trading some words with her supposive friend she transformed into her Leo Star Dress throwing a punch at him with him punching her at the same time

In Magnolia however, the entire guild was having their own problems with the sudden attack on the city. Especially a mother and her young son who were running for their lives from a large wolf like creature chasing them. As the young boy tripped on a rock falling to the ground his mother shielded his body with her own in an attempt to protect him from the large creature till a literal giant fist collided with the creature sending it flying down the street. The two of them watched as the hand shrunk in size for the short old man standing there "Are you two alright? I am the guild master of Fairy Tail, we're asking that everyone stay inside out guild till its safe"

The mother nodded picking up her son and ran towards the guild as Lisanna flew down from the sky, landing next to Makarov. "Master, they're all over the city. We've managed to take down a few but there's a lot of them and they're tough"

The two of them looked down the street as the same creature Makarov had sent flying was running towards them. Lisanna changed into her cat form jumping towards it and punch its face into the ground before vaulting off of it as Makarovs giant fist slammed down on it sending it further into the ground "Ensure that the citizens are in their homes or at the guild and that everyone is safe; and be careful"

He watched as she changed into her bird form and flew off before looking back at the growling creature who once again was running at him. Makarov began to enlarge his fist till a he was suddenly hit in the face sending him to grounf by a blur, he tried to figure out what that was but didnt have time as the large beast jumped on top of him. Both of his hands grew to large size grabbing hold of the beast and sent him flying into the river "What in the world was that?"

He searched the area around him for any sign but found none and continued to make his way through the town. Back at thr guild where nearly all the citizens were watched through the windows as the Fairy Tail mages fought off the creatures, all scared for their lives. There were a number of mages inside acting as a last resort which included Juvia who was watching parents ensure their children that everything would be okay "Are you alright Juvia?"

The water mage looked down to see Wendy beside her holding Carla in her arms "You seem a bit scared"

"Juvia is fine, she just doesn't like seeing all these children frightened. Makes Juvia worried that something could happen..." Wendy noticed Juvia look down saddened then smiled at her

"That's why we're here, to protect these people. I'm a bit scared as well but we can't be right now, we have a duty to all these people and our friends fighting out there" Wendy as well as Carla confidently nodded which caused a smile to appear on Juvias face

"Wendy is right, Juvia should focus on protecting everyone" She looked over at the large amount of people that filled the guild till someone suddenly bursted through the doors somehow making their way to the second floor in an instant "Hello there everyone!"

Everyone's gaze moved up towards the young man who was standing there with no one recognizing him except Wendy "You! You were at the guild when we went!"

"Nice of you to remember, just dropped by to say that all you nice folk should probably leave. The boss just said to take out Fairy Tail not you guys, just be careful with the wolves out there" The citizens looked at him frightened as three cards suddenly flew towards him causing a small explosion but when the smoke cleared he wasn't there

"Where did he...?" Cana asked as she had thrown the cards from behind him since she was already on the second floor "Juvia! Get everyone into the cellar downstairs" 

Juvia quickly nodded at Canas command and ran to the cellar door, opening it for the people to rush downwards as Cana examined the guild hall. "Come out you brat!"

She was however tackled off of the second floor sending her crashing into a table on the first floor. Macao ran over helping her up as the blur passed by them towards Juvia punching her with enough force to send her into the wall "While those wolves handle everyone outside I guess I'll handle you guys in here"

The young man in red smirked as Wendy ran over to Juvia helping her up "Juvia! Are you alright?"

"Juvia is fine... But she needs Wendy to check something" Juvia looked completely terrified for some reason and lifted her shirt revealing her stomach

"Didnt he hit your face? Why do you need me to check your stomach?" Wendy looked at her confused and her eyes widened as Juvia quickly explained the reason. She held her hands out to examine her stomach till her hair was pulled harshly and she was thrown "A healer huh? Can't let you do that"

"Dont you dare hurt Wendy!" Carla jumped towards his face looking like she was about to scratch him but he ran out of the way with everyone looking as if they were moving in slow motion. The citizens had gotten in the cellar clearing up the area so he quickly ran in punching Macao before moving over to Cana and then running back to Juvia.

He held his fist out ready to hit her till the wind suddenly got a lot stronger in the building for some reason and he was somehow punched in the face sending him to the ground "Dont you dare touch her!"

He quickly got back up stunned that somehow had managed to hit him when he was moving but what stunned him more was who he was looking at. Wendy was standing in front of him except now with white dragon scales coming out of her legs and wrists with some also coming out her back, all in the shake of wings. Her hair was now pink and curved, moving upwards. "Okay this is new, no ones actually been able to hit me when I'm running"

He didnt receive a response as Wendy simply tightened her fists glaring at him, he didnt let it bother him however as he ran towards her to hit her but watched as she dodged his punch punching him in his stomach which sent him up to the ceiling. Everyone stared in shock as Carla had been the only one to ever see Wendy use her Dragon Force in action before

The young man fell back to the ground groaning and stood back up quickly looking at Wendy "Lucas"

Wendy looked at him confused as she raised her fists prepared for another attack "what? Is that your name?"

"Yeah, I wanted you to know the name of who's gonna beat you into unconciousness before killing the rest of your friends!" He yelled angrily running out of the guild into the town causing Wendy to chase after him with the quick speed she had when in Dragon Force mode

Back at the dark guild mansion Erza charged towards her green haired opponent with a sword striking at her hammer. Sylvia smiled, waiting for the sword to transform into a cube but saw it glow before actually pushing her back "What the?! It should be a cube!"

Erza took this opportunity and punched her with great force sending her to the ground "It is a cube"

As Sylvia stood back up a metal cube was thrown to her as Erza held up the sword she was currently holding "I needed a few tries to figure it out but I did, you need a second. As my sword makes contact with that hammer it needs a full second of contact to transform it. All I need to do is Requip another weapon before that second is up to counter you"

"Smart plan but idiotic as well Titania" Sylvia let out a laugh as she held up her hammer "Even for you that's pretty tough, requipping for every strike and in less then a second? Wonder what will give out first, your magic or your body when I break you"

"You'll have to hit me first" Erza replied back as she ran towards her clashing her sword against the hammer once more. Erza may have found a way to combat her opponent but Gajeel didnt have the same luck she did

The iron Dragon Slayer was currently being held in the air by the black magic coming off of the girl which tightened around his neck. He struggled to breath for air and looked down at the girl as one of her eyes cried tears while the other was pitch black. She began speaking in a demonic voice as she held him in the air "She warned you to leave, should have listened to her"

A large grin spread across her face as the magic tightened around his neck while he attempted to cut away at the magic but couldn't. He struggled to breath for air and after hearing something crack and watching his limbs fall limp she let him fall to the ground "Why didn't you run?"

The girl said in her normal voice crying much harder looking at his body on the ground. She covered her eyes crying while back in Magnolia Levy created a hole in the ground for one of the large wolves to fall in before looking in the direction her friends had left in to go fight

"Is everything okay Levy?" Asked Pantherlily in his battle form as he watched for any wolves heading towards them

"Yeah.... Just... Got a bad feeling is all...."


	20. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, just want to say thank you to all of you who read my story and leave reviews. The story will soon be coming to an end and I just wanted to thank you, here's chapter 20
> 
> Hope you all are enjoying your summer

Gajeel was being held up in the air by the dark magic wrapped around his neck coming out of the small girl who stood a few feet away from him. The iron Dragon Slayer struggled to get free as the magic tightened around his neck choking him as the little girl cried. He didn't really know what was wrong with her especially considering he was the one being choked but he didn't have much time to think as oxygen stopped flowing to his brain. He continued struggling and turned his arm into a metal club aiming it at the girl but he couldn't do it, even though she was the one doing this to him he couldn't hurt her.

He let his arm turn back to normal as there was a crack sound and he fell down to the ground as the girl fell to her knees bawling her eyes out "I don't want to kill... I don't want to hurt people! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"

"Its gonna take a lot more to kill me brat, and piece of advice. Make sure the victims dead before letting them go" The small girl looked up to see Gajeel standing with his neck covered in iron with cracked pieces falling off

Eirene looked at him happily till her eye suddenly turned black and large black spikes came out of her back along with a very different, evil voice from her mouth "Why won't you just die!?"

The spikes flew towards Gajeel but as they were about to strike his body suddenly became engulfed in shadows and he turned into one moving along the black spike "Because I got someone back home waiting for me!"

He flew along the spike before entering the girls body to which she ended up passing out on the floor. Gajeel wasnt too sure what his plan was but when he flew into her body he ended up falling onto a dirt road in what seemed like a town "What the hell....?"

He stood to his feet looking at the large house in front of him and he sniffed the air trying to find a scent but couldn't even though he could hear people inside the house. Gajeel walked over to a window peering inside to see Eirene sitting in what seemed like her room with a large smile on her face "Oh wow, you look just like me!"

Gajeel looked closer at who she was talking to and found her talking to a reflection of herself, except the reflections eyes were pitch black "Yeah! I'm just like you, you wanna be friends?"

"Yeah!" Exclaimed cheerfully Eirene till the door to her room opened up revealing a tall slender woman with matching black hair to the small girl

"Eirene its time for dinner, come on I made stew" 

"Yay! I love stew!" Gajeel watched her run out the room followed by who he assumed to be her mother. He was about to try and break in but to his surprise the room suddenly vanished even though the house was still there

"I miss mommas stew...." Gajeel quickly turned around to see Eirene standing there with her head down and no black magic surrounding her

"Hey kid, what is all this?" Gajeel asked as she looked up at him with the house disappearing behind him

"Memories, my memories, I like to come here because here I was happy...." Gajeel looked down at her surprised and kneeled down to her level

"You're a really weird kid, but I can tell you're not a bad one. So why don't you tell what that black magic is and why you go crazy sometimes?" 

He watched Eirene sniffle a bit before looking at him "Its a really bad thing, it came from a really old looking book and pretended to be my friend... And then..."

She couldn't finish her sentence however as she bursted out into tears running into Gajeels arms. He wasn't too sure what to do since he didn't have much experience with kids but he placed his hands on her back rubbing it "Hey... No need to cry. It's not like someone hurt you"

He was hoping for this to help but it just caused her to cry harder grabbing onto his shirt. Gajeel simply held her close as the are around them suddenly turned into a hallway with screams coming from a room nearby. Gajeel stood up to check it out but when he tried the Eirene grabbed his hand with tears running down her eyes "Please don't! Don't go in there! Dont look!"

Gajeel looked at her debating whether or not to open the door till the door suddenly opened and what he saw shocked him. He watched as Eirene walked out of the room completely covered in blood with no emotion in her face, her hands were shaking and she looked completely traumatized "Ma.... Ma.... Pa... Pa...."

He watched as she continued to walk with the real Eirene holding onto him crying as the other looked into a mirror seeing herself with black eyes and a wide grin on her face "They're gone now, its just you and me. Forver and ever"

Gajeel stared at the small girl covered in blood till the area around them disappeared again leaving him and the small girl holding onto him in a large black empty area. "I don't want to remember... Why did you make me remember..."

Gajeel hugged her tightly as she held onto him crying "Hey its alright, I'm gonna get you out of here and get rid of the bad stuff you hear?"

She looked at him nodding till she was suddenly pulled away from him and pulled into a large black cloud with what looked like a face on it "I'm surprised you're here, no ones ever done this in a fight before. I'll have to punish the child for not telling me where you were"

"So you're the black stuff that made her do that? I'm gonna tear you apart, she's just a kid! And you made her do something like that to her own parents!?" Gajeel growled at it as his hand suddenly transformed into an iron sword

"Are you one to criticize? In here I can see into your memories as well, and the woman you claim to love certainly didn't have a fun time when you two first met" Gajeel growled at the cloud as the area around them suddenly turned into Magnolia. A certain night in Magnolia, where Jet and Droy were unconcious on the ground as he slammed Levy into a wall

Gajeels arm suddenly tuned back to normal watching as the he kicked levy in the stomach causing her to cry out in pain "Truly love at first sight, can you honestly say you deserve her? That you deserve that mark on your shoulder?"

Gajeel watched as he continued to kick her before tossing her along with Jet and Droy into the park towards the tree. He seemed frozen, watching as he cut open Levys shirt before painting the Phantom Lord mark on her stomach "There is no excuse for this, you hurt her and publicly humiliated her. And yet you claim to love her, you know you don't deserve her or anything after what you did"

Gajeel looked up at the tree, at Levy hanging there chained to the tree. He held his head down as black spikes came out of the cloud slowly moving towards him "You're right... I don't deserve her or this guild"

The spikes suddenly moved towards him at quick speed only for him to turn around slashing them away with an iron sword "But that's why I gotta work my ass off making it up to her. Making it up to Jet and Droy and Fairy Tail, they gave me a second chance and I intend to use it ot the fullest!"

He glared at the large cloud as many more spikes suddenly lunged at him "Iron Dragon Roar!"

He blew away all of the spikes before running towards the cloud and reached in before pulling out Eirene who was at the same time being pulled back in to the cloud "Listen to me kid! You can't ever forget what you did, and you're gonna have to live with it! But one thing you can do is work towards making up for it! Making up for what you did!"

As Gajeel said this an image of him at Fairy Tail with everyone else suddenly became their surrounding, before turning into him training with Pantherlily, and finally him and Levy, with her smiling at him "I love you Gajeel"

"Dont let your past hold you down, you have to live with it and move forward!" Gajeel attempted to pull her out of the smoke but it pulled her away causing him to lose his grip on her. He watched as she was getting pulled back into it only for her to reach out grabbing his hand "I want to move forward! I want to move forward!"

He succeded in pulling her away from the smoke while back in the real world her unconscious body began to glow brightly till there was suddenly a boom of light and Gajeel was thrown across the garden still holding onto her. He slowly stood up looking down at her as she continued to grab onto his shirt "Hey kid, you alright?"

He saw her actually smile up at him nodding as she stood up "Yes Mr Gajeel, I don't feel it anymore. I don't feel it inside of me anymore!"

"Hey that's good, guess we got rid of it" He smiled down at her patting her head till a sudden black spike shot through his chest causing him to cough up some blood 

Eirene looked up at him terrified till it suddenly pulled back and they both turned back to see the large black cloud of dark magic energy there "You may have pulled her away from me, but I'm still strong enough to kill the two of you!"

A large black scythe suddenly appeared slashing at the garden bur Gajeel reacted in time to move him and Eirene out of the way. "You alright kid?"

He looked down to see her still in his arms but unconscious, he could see her breathing though and set her down before standing up and walking towards the cloud "Things are never easy are they?"

The large cloud suddenly launched numerous spikes at him which all impaled him, but his body was once again covered in iron and shadows. He grabbed onto the spikes growling at the cloud as it couldn't move away due to him being able to grab it in this form "You know.... Having to watch me do what I did wasn't good for trying to move on. It just got me really really pissed"

The cloud attempted to pull away only for Gajeel to tighten his grip and take a deep breath "Iron Shadow Dragon Roar!"

A large blast came from his mouth hitting the large cloud of magic energy causing it to slowly disappear from the blast. Once it was all gone Gajeel turned back to his normal form falling to his knee coughing up more blood "Crap... Gotta get outta here..."

He looked back at Irene and carefully picked her up putting her over his shoulder and began to walk, attempting to find a way out of the awfully large garden.

Back with Erza, who launched at least twenty swords at her opponent watched as Sylvia slammed her hammer into the ground creating a large wall blocking all of the swords "So that hammer can change more than just metal?"

The wall slowly sank back into the ground along with the swords as Sylvia stepped forward "Anything it touches it can change, you should remember that. Its what helped make that large horn we decorated for you"

"What?" Erza asked curiously onto to have Sylvia charge at her forcing her to block 

"Do you even remember me? Or my father? You said you would come back!" Sylvia yelled managing to push Erza down onto the ground with her hammer

Erza quickly jumped back gaining some distance as she was once again holding a metal cube in her hand before tossing it away "I assure you, I dont know what you're talking about"

"We were all so grateful for what you did, we all decorated it for you. You promised to come back... But you never did"


End file.
